Patricia Bath facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Patricia Era Bath
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| Born | November 4, 1942 New York City, U.S.
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| Died | May 30, 2019 (aged 76) San Francisco, California, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Hunter College (B.A.) Howard University (M.D.) |
| Occupation | Ophthalmologist, inventor, humanitarian |
| Known for | Invention of Laserphaco Probe |
Patricia Era Bath (November 4, 1942 – May 30, 2019) was an American ophthalmologist, inventor, humanitarian, and academic. She invented an improved device for laser cataract surgery. Her invention was called Laserphaco Probe, which she patented in 1986. She also became the first woman member of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, first woman to lead a post-graduate training program in ophthalmology, and first woman elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medical Center.
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Early life and education
Patricia Bath was born 1942, in Harlem, New York. She was the daughter of Rupert and Gladys Bath.
Her father was an immigrant from Trinidad, a newspaper columnist, a merchant seaman and the first black man to work for the New York City Subway as a motorman. Her father inspired her love for culture and encouraged her to explore different cultures.
Her mother was a descendant of African slaves and Cherokee Native Americans. Throughout her childhood, Bath was often told by her parents to "always settle for less than [her] best" and had been encouraged by their support of her education. Her mother, encouraging her dreams and love of science, had bought her her first chemistry set.
By the time she had reached high school, Bath was already a National Science Foundation scholar. Her cancer research was featured on the front-page in the New York Times. Patricia and her brother attended Charles Evans Hughes High School where both excelled in science and math.
Inspired by Albert Schweitzer's work in medicine, Bath applied for and won a National Science Foundation Scholarship while attending high school. Later, she did a research project at Yeshiva University and Harlem Hospital Center - she studied connections between cancer, nutrition, and stress. In this summer program, led by Rabbi Moses D. Tendler, Bath had studied the effects of streptomycin residue on bacteria. She had also discovered a mathematical equation that could be used to predict cancer cell growth. The head of the research program realized the significance of her findings and published them in a scientific paper. Her discoveries were also shared at the International Fifth Congress of Nutrition in the fall of 1960.
In 1960, at the age of eighteen years old, Bath won a "Merit Award" of Mademoiselle magazine for her contribution to the project.
Bath received her Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from Manhattan's Hunter College in 1964. She then relocated to Washington, D.C. to attend Howard University College of Medicine. She co-founded the Student National Medical Association and became its first woman president in 1965.
At Howard, she was awarded a Children's Bureau National Government Fellowship Award to do research in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in the summer of 1967, where her research focused on pediatric surgery. The highlight of the award ceremony was the meeting of Earl Warren, chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, at the US Embassy in Belgrade. Bath graduated with honors from Howard University College of Medicine in 1968. She was awarded the Edwin Watson Prize for Excellence in Ophthalmology by her mentor, Lois A. Young.
Bath returned to her Harlem community and interned at Harlem Hospital Center, which had just become affiliated with Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Bath served her residency in ophthalmology at New York University, from 1970 to 1973, the first African American to do so.
Career
After completing her residency at NYU, Bath began a Corneal fellowship program at Columbia University (1973 to 1974).
While a fellow, she was recruited by both the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute and Charles R. Drew University to co-found an ophthalmology residency program at Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital.
She then began her career in Los Angeles, becoming the first woman ophthalmologist on the faculty at Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. She was appointed assistant chief of the King-Drew-UCLA Ophthalmology Residency Program in 1974, and was appointed chief in 1983.
At both institutions, Bath rose to the rank of associate professor. At UCLA, she founded the Ophthalmic Assistant Training Program (OATP) in 1978. The graduates of the OATP are key personnel to provide screening, health education, and support for blindness prevention strategies.
While at UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute, Bath established a program to provide advanced surgical treatment for blind patients. The program continues today and thousands of patients have had their eyesight restored with this innovative technology.
In 1983, Bath was appointed Chair of the KING-DREW-UCLA Ophthalmology Residency Program, becoming the first woman in the US to head an ophthalmology residency program.
In 1986, Bath resigned her position as chair of ophthalmology. She wanted to concentrate on her research work. She was a visiting professor in France, England and Germany. In France, she served as visiting professor at the Rothschilde Eye Institute of Paris with Director, Daniele Aron-Rosa. In England, she served as visiting professor with Professor Emmony at the Loughborough Institute of Technology. In Germany, she served as visiting professor at the University of Free Berlin and the laser medical center.
In 1993, Bath retired from UCLA.
Bath served as a professor of ophthalmology at Howard University's School of Medicine and as a professor of telemedicine and ophthalmology at St. Georges University ophthalmology training program.
Humanitarian work
Bath worked at the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness. This organization had been created on the principle that "eyesight was a basic human right." Through this organization, Bath was able to spread eye care throughout the globe by providing newborns with free eye drops, vitamins for malnourishment, and vaccinations against diseases that can cause blindness, like measles. Bath claims her "personal best moment" was while she was in North Africa and using keratoprosthesis, was able to restore the sight of a woman who been blind for over 30 years.
Bath was also recognized for her philanthropic work in the field of ophthalmology by President Barack Obama. In 2009, she was on stage with President Obama and was put on his commission for digital accessibility to blind children.
Inventions
In 1986, Bath did research in the laboratory of Danièle Aron-Rosa, a pioneer researcher in lasers and ophthalmology at Rothschilde Eye Institute of Paris, and then at the Laser Medical Center in Berlin. There she was able to begin early studies in laser cataract surgery.
Bath coined the term "Laser phaco" for the process, short for laser PHotoAblative Cataract surgery. She developed the laserphaco probe, a medical device that improves on the use of lasers to remove cataracts. Bath first had the idea for this type of device in 1981, but applied for a patent several years later. The device was completed in 1986 after Bath conducted research on lasers in Berlin and patented in 1988. That made her the first African-American woman to receive a patent for a medical purpose. The device — which quickly and nearly painlessly dissolves the cataract with a laser, irrigates and cleans the eye and permits the easy insertion of a new lens — is used internationally to treat the disease. Bath continued to improve the device and successfully restored vision to people who had been unable to see for decades.
Bath holds five patents in the United States. Three of Bath's five patents relate to the Laserphaco Probe. In 2000, she was granted a patent for a method for using pulsed ultrasound to remove cataracts, and in 2003 a patent for combining laser and ultrasound to remove cataracts.
List of U.S. patents
- U.S. patent 4744360, "Apparatus for ablating and removing cataract lenses", issued May 17, 1988
- U.S. patent 5843071, "Method and apparatus for ablating and removing cataract lenses" issued December 1, 1998
- U.S. patent 5919186, "Laser apparatus for surgery of cataractous lenses", issued July 6, 1999.
- U.S. patent 6083192, "Pulsed ultrasound method for fragmenting/emulsifying and removing cataractous lenses, issued July 4, 2000.
- U.S. patent 6544254, "Combination ultrasound and laser method and apparatus for removing cataract lenses", issued April 8, 2003.
Personal life and death
Bath was married to Dr. Beny J. Primm. They had one daughter, Eraka Patty Jene Bath, born in 1972. Dr. Bath died in San Fransciso on May 30, 2019, after a brief illness. She was 76 years old. She was survived by her brother Rupert, her daughter, and a granddaughter.
Interesting facts about Patricia Bath
- Bath was the first African-American person to serve as a resident in ophthalmology at New York University.
- She was the first African-American woman to serve on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center.
- Bath was the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose.
- She was a holder of five patents in the U.S.
- Bath founded the non-profit American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Washington, D.C.
- The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., in 1968, caused Bath to dedicate herself to achieving one of the dreams of King, namely the empowerment of people through the Poor People's Campaign. She organized and led Howard University medical students in providing volunteer health care services to the Poor People's Campaign in Resurrection City in the summer of 1968.
- Bath was on the Columbia University team that performed the first eye surgery at Harlem Hospital in November 1969.
- She lectured internationally and authored over 100 papers.
- Bath published the first scientific paper showing the higher prevalence of blindness among Blacks.
- She also found that African American people had eight times higher prevalence of glaucoma as a cause of blindness.
- She was a strong advocate for telemedicine and had supported the innovation of virtual labs, as a part of the curriculum in ophthalmology residency training programs.
- Several books for young people have been published about her life and work in science, including Patricia’s Vision: The Doctor Who Saved Sight by Michelle Lord; Patricia Bath and Laser Surgery by Ellen Labrecqua, and The Doctor with an Eye for Eyes: The Story of Dr. Patricia Bath by Julia Finley Mosca, which was cited by both the National Science Teachers Association and the Chicago Public Library's list of best children's books of the year.
- She is also the subject of a short play, The Prize (about Dr. Patricia Bath) by Cynthia L. Cooper.
Patricia Bath quotes
- "Do not allow your mind to be imprisoned by majority thinking. Remember that the limits of science are not the limits of imagination."
- "My love of humanity and passion for helping others inspired me to become a physician."
Honors and awards
- 1995: NAACP Legal Defense Fund Black Woman Achievement Award
- 2000: Smithsonian Museum's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation included her in the Innovative Lives program
- 2001: American Medical Women's Association induction into Hall of Fame
- 2006: Tubman's Sheila Award
- 2011: Dr. Bath was interviewed for the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Museum of Vision oral history collection that "preserves the memories and experiences of people whose lives are an inspiration."
- 2012: Tribeca Film Festival Disruptive Innovation Award
- 2013: Association of Black Women Physicians Lifetime Achievement Award for Ophthalmology Contributions
- 2014: Alpha Kappa Alpha Presidential Award for Health and medical Sciences
- 2014: Howard University Charter Day Award for Distinguished Achievement in Ophthalmology and Medicine
- 2017: Medscape one of 12 "Women Physicians who Changed the Course of American Medicine"
- 2017: Time Magazine "Firsts: Women Who Are Changing the World" for being the first to invent and demonstrate laserphaco cataract surgery
- 2017: Hunter College Hall of Fame induction
- 2018: New York Academy of Medicine John Stearns Medal for Distinguished Contributions in Clinical Practice, for invention of laserphaco cataract surgery
- 2018: Alliance for Aging research: Silver Innovator Award for contributions and research towards blindness prevention
- In 2021, it was announced that she would be one of the first two black women (along with Marian Croak) to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Dr. Bath had also been a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons from 1976 to 1989, a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, as well as a member of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
Bath has been honored by two of her universities. Hunter College placed her in its "hall of fame" in 1988 and Howard University declared her a "Howard University Pioneer in Academic Medicine" in 1993.
Timeline
- 1942 - born in Harlem, New York
- 1959 - discovered a mathematical equation that could be used to predict cancer cell growth
- 1960 - won a "Merit Award" of Mademoiselle magazine
- 1964 - received her Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from Manhattan's Hunter College
- 1965 - co-founded the Student National Medical Association and became its first woman president
- 1967 - awarded a Children's Bureau National Government Fellowship Award
- 1968 - earned a medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine
- from 1970 to 1973 - served her residency in ophthalmology at New York University
- 1974 - appointed assistant chief of the King-Drew-UCLA Ophthalmology Residency Program
- 1978 - founded the Ophthalmic Assistant Training Program (OATP) at UCLA
- 1983 - appointed Chair of the KING-DREW-UCLA Ophthalmology Residency Program
- 1986 - resigned as chair of ophthalmology at UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute
- 1988 - patented the laserphaco probe
- 1993 - retired from UCLA
- 2000 - granted a patent for a method for using pulsed ultrasound to remove cataracts
- 2003 - patented a method for combining laser and ultrasound to remove cataracts
- 2017 - inducted into Hunter College Hall of Fame
- 2019 - died on May 30 in San Fransciso after a brief illness
See also
In Spanish: Patricia Bath para niños
