The process of developing this technique took years of work due to its advanced and innovative approach. Bath received her first patent in the U.
In the following years, she received an additional seven patents: four in the U. In addition to the invention of the Laserphaco, Dr. Bath highlighted her important work in developing a new approach within ophthalmology. But then I realize that many times, you cannot be the surgeon for everyone who needs eye surgery and that there are more people blinded by preventable causes and treatable causes than any given ophthalmologist could ever treat.
With this intention, Dr. Bath established a new discipline within medicine called community ophthalmology. This novel approach incorporates a public health-based lens to examine demographics and health determinants within at-risk populations and highlights the need to address issues by providing primary eye care through volunteer outreach.
Bath first landed on this idea as a result of her observations while interning at Harlem Hospital Eye Clinic and simultaneously completing a fellowship at Columbia University. It seemed that at the Eye Clinic at Harlem Hospital, half the patients were blind or visually impaired. Bath analyzed data from state-maintained blindness registries and found that between the ages of 45 and 64 years, Black Americans demonstrated a rate of blindness that was 3.
Glaucoma, which is relatively easy to prevent, was eight times more common as a cause of blindness in Black Americans. Bath concluded that these rates of blindness resulted from the disparity in services available to the Black community, leading to undiagnosed and untreated diseases. Bath emphasized that a key component of community ophthalmology is promoting health education. Spreading awareness within underserved communities with a high risk of blindness, she believed, could ensure early diagnosis and treatment.
On May 30, , Dr. Bath died due to complications resulting from cancer. Her spirit of determination remains a legacy in the field of ophthalmology and inspires scientists and clinicians alike in their pursuit to bring about change in the world.
This Special Feature celebrates the achievements and legacy of Dr. Marie Maynard Daly, the first Black woman to achieve a Ph. In this Special Feature, we celebrate the life and achievements of Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler — , the first Black woman M. Rosalind Franklin is best known for her contribution to unraveling the structure of DNA. If you like to think big, but some say you're too small, or they say you're too young or too slow or too tall Meet Dr. As a girl coming of age during the Civil Rights Movement, Patricia Bath made it her mission to become a doctor.
Patricia Bath is the second book in an educational series about the inspirational lives of amazing scientists! In addition to the illustrated rhyming tale, you'll find a complete biography, fun facts, a colorful timeline of events, and even a note from Dr. Bath herself! Log in or Create account. Cart 0. Menu Cart 0. Biography of Patricia Bath. At Harlem Hospital, where there were many African American patients, nearly half were blind or visually impaired.
But at Columbia Eye Clinic, the blindness rate was markedly lower. She conducted a study documenting her observation that blindness among African Americans was nearly double the rate of blindness among whites. With this finding Bath established a new discipline known as Community Ophthalmology, now studied and practiced worldwide. She also helped bring eye surgery services to Harlem Hospital's Eye Clinic, which has since helped to treat and cure thousands of patients.
She became the first African American resident at New York University, where she finished her medical training in Meanwhile, she also married and had a child, while completing a fellowship in in corneal and keratoporosthesis surgery. Eventually, cataracts can lead to blindness. After that, she advocated for telemedicine, the use of electronic communication to provide medical services to remote areas where health care is limited.
She has held positions in telemedicine at Howard University and St. George's University in Grenada. Bath's greatest passion, however, continued to be fighting blindness until her death in May Her "personal best moment" occurred on a humanitarian mission to North Africa, when she restored the sight of a woman who had been blind for thirty years by implanting a keratoprosthesis.
Sexism, racism, and relative poverty were the obstacles which I faced as a young girl growing up in Harlem. There were no women physicians I knew of and surgery was a male-dominated profession; no high schools existed in Harlem, a predominantly black community; additionally, blacks were excluded from numerous medical schools and medical societies; and, my family did not possess the funds to send me to medical school.
Bath says her mother scrubbed floors so she could go to medical school. Despite official university policies extolling equality and condemning discrimination, Bath experienced both sexism and racism during her tenure at both UCLA and Drew.
Determined that her research not be obstructed by the "glass ceilings," she took her research abroad to Europe, where her research was accepted on its merits at the Laser Medical Center of Berlin, West Germany, the Rothschild Eye Institute of Paris, France, and the Loughborough England Institute of Technology.
At those institutions she excelled in research and laser science, the fruits of which are evidenced by her patents for laser eye surgery. I am most proud of my invention of a new technique and concept for cataract surgery, known as laserphaco, which is defined by my publications as well as patents.
Newspaper accounts of the humanitarian work of Dr. Albert Schweitzer who treated lepers in Africa and my personal relationship with my family physician, Dr. Cecil Marquez, inspired me with the ambition to become a physician. Both my parents shared my admiration for these two role models and encouraged me to pursue my ambition.
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