Patricia Bath – Historical Inductee to National Inventors Hall of Fame
By: Christine Leavitt
The National Inventors Hall of Fame is an organization that “recognizes the enduring legacies of exceptional U.S. patent holders”. Each year, this organization inducts a group of exceptional individuals into its hall of fame who have created new innovations that improve society and inspire future innovators to transform our world. It was recently announced that two Black women inventors, who worked in STEM fields, will be among the 2022 inductees into the National Inventors Hall of Fame! In fact, these ladies are the first Black women to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame ever! One of these ladies is Dr. Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist who holds 5 U.S. Patents, including U.S. Patent No. 4,744,360 for Laserphaco cataract surgery.
Dr. Patricia Bath transformed the world through her invention of the Laserphaco, which device assists in the removal of cataracts. In fact, this device performs “all steps of cataract-removal: making the incision, destroying the lens and vacuuming out the fractured pieces. Dr. Bath is recognized as the first Black woman physician to receive a medical patent”. She was additionally the first female ophthalmologist on the faculty of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, and she invented the design for the Laserphaco device in 1981. This device was patented in the U.S. in 1988 and used in both Asia and Europe by 2000. The Laserphaco revolutionized cataract surgery by improving surgical accuracy, reducing the pain experienced by patients, and performing keratoprosthesis to restore sight in individuals “who have been blind for years”.
Dr. Bath was born in 1942 in Harlem, New York and passed away from cancer-related complications in 2019. In 1960, Bath was “one of Mademoiselle magazine’s Ten Young Women of the Year...for cancer research she conducted at Harlem Hospital” for her studies concerning cancer, nutrition and stress. Throughout medical school, Dr. Bath was an activist, working for organizations including the Poor People’s Campaign and co-founding the Student National Medical Association. Dr. Bath additionally shattered many barriers, including being “the first Black resident in ophthalmology at New York University’s School of Medicine… the first Black woman surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center… the first female faculty member of the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute…. [and] the first Black female physician to receive a U.S. patent for a medical invention”.
As part of her career, Dr. Bath found that Black individuals had “double the rate of glaucoma and realized that the high prevalence of blindness among Blacks was due to a lack of access to ophthalmic care”. This discovery led to her co-founding the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, which organization is “dedicated to the prevention of blindness through programs designed to protect, preserve, and restore the Gift of Sight” and “founded on the principle that eyesight is a basic human right”. Dr. Bath has blessed countless individuals through her invention of the Laserphaco and tireless dedication to helping all people, especially those who have been systemically oppressed, to maintain and restore their eyesight.
Written by:
Christine Leavitt
Graduate Research Assistant
Women and Gender Studies
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