Also American

Person · 1942–2019

Patricia Bath

The ophthalmologist and inventor whose laser device transformed cataract surgery.

A frontier of [[black-science]].

Patricia Bath was the first Black woman doctor to receive a medical patent, for her Laserphaco Probe, and a founder of the discipline of community ophthalmology dedicated to preventing blindness among the underserved.

On the timeline

  1. May 17, 1988
    Patricia Bath patents the Laserphaco Probe

    Becomes the first Black woman physician to receive a U.S. medical patent.

Resources

The web

Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.

  • part of·Thread
    Black Inventors, Engineers & Architects

    Ophthalmologist who invented the Laserphaco Probe for cataract surgery, the first African-American woman to receive a patent for a medical invention.