Patricia Era Bath | |
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| Born | (1942-11-04)November 4, 1942 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | May 30, 2019(2019-05-30) (aged 76) San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Hunter College (B.A.) Howard University (M.D.) |
| Occupations | Ophthalmologist,humanitarian |
| Awards | National Inventors Hall of Fame National Women's Hall of Fame |
Patricia Era Bath (November 4, 1942 – May 30, 2019) was an Americanophthalmologist and humanitarian. She became the first female member of theJules Stein Eye Institute, the first woman to lead a postgraduate training program inophthalmology, and the first woman elected to the honorary staff of theUCLA Medical Center. Bath was the first African-American to serve as a resident in ophthalmology atNew York University. She was also 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 apatent for a medical purpose.[1] A holder of five patents,[2] she founded the nonprofit American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Washington, D.C.[3]
Born in 1942 inHarlem, New York, Patricia Bath was the daughter of Rupert and Gladys Bath.[4] Her father was an immigrant fromTrinidad, a newspaper columnist, amerchant seaman, and the first black man to work for theNew York City Subway as amotorman.[5][6] Her father inspired her love for culture and encouraged her to explore different cultures.[7] Her mother was descended fromAfrican slaves andCherokee Native Americans.[5] Throughout her childhood, Bath was often told by her parents to "never settle for less than [her] best" and was encouraged by their support of her education. Her mother, encouraging her dreams and love of science, had bought her first chemistry set. By the time she had reached high school, Bath was already aNational Science Foundation Scholar. This led to her cancer research earning a front-page feature in the New York Times.[8][9] Patricia and her brother attendedCharles Evans Hughes High School, where both students excelled in science and math.[10]
Inspired by the FrenchNobel Peace Prize laureateAlbert Schweitzer's work in medicine,[6] Bath applied for and won aNational Science Foundation Scholarship while attending high school; this led her to a research project atYeshiva University andHarlem Hospital Center studying connections between cancer, nutrition, and stress.[11][12] In this summer program, led by RabbiMoses D. Tendler, Bath studied the effects ofstreptomycin residue on bacteria. Through this, she was able to conclude that cancer itself was acatabolic disease and tumor growth was a symptom.[13][14] She had also discovered a mathematical equation that could be used to predict cancer cell growth.[15] The head of the research program realized the significance of her findings and published them in a scientific paper.[7] Her discoveries were also shared at the International Fifth Congress of Nutrition in the fall of 1960.[14]
In 1960, at the age of eighteen, Bath won a Merit Award fromMademoiselle magazine for her contribution to the project.[6]
Bath received her Bachelor of Arts inchemistry from Manhattan'sHunter College in 1964.[4] She then relocated to Washington, D.C. to attendHoward University College of Medicine.[6] Her first year at Howard coincided with theCivil Rights Act of 1964. She co-founded theStudent National Medical Association and became its first woman president in 1965.[16][17] At Howard, she was awarded aChildren's Bureau National Government Fellowship Award to do research inBelgrade, Yugoslavia, in the summer of 1967, where her research focused onpediatric surgery.[18] The highlight of the award ceremony was the meeting withEarl Warren, Chief Justice of theUnited States Supreme Court, at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade.[citation needed] Bath graduated with honors from Howard University College of Medicine in 1968.[6] She was awarded the Edwin Watson Prize for Excellence in Ophthalmology by her mentor, Lois A. Young.[citation needed]
The assassination ofMartin Luther King Jr. in 1968, caused Bath to dedicate herself to achieving one of the dreams of King, namely the empowerment of people through thePoor People's Campaign. She organized and led Howard University medical students in providing volunteer healthcare services to the Poor People's Campaign in Resurrection City in the summer of 1968.[19]
Bath returned to her Harlem community andinterned atHarlem Hospital Center, which had just become affiliated withColumbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. During her internship, she observed large proportions of blind patients at Harlem Hospital in comparison to patients at the Columbia University Eye Clinic. Before beginning her ophthalmology residency study at NYU in 1970, Bath was awarded a one-year fellowship from Columbia University to study and contribute to eye care services at Harlem Hospital. She began collecting data on blindness and visual impairment at Harlem Hospital, which did not have any ophthalmologists on staff. Her data and passion for improvement persuaded her professors from Columbia to begin operating on blind patients, without charge, at Harlem Hospital Center.[20] Bath was proud to be on the Columbia team that performed the first eye surgery at Harlem Hospital in November 1969.[citation needed]
Bath completed her residency inophthalmology atNew York University from 1970 to 1973, the first African American to do so.[6][5] She gave birth to her daughter, Eraka, in 1972.[5]
After completing her residency at New York University, Bath began a corneal fellowship program atColumbia University, which focused oncorneal transplantation andkeratoprosthesis surgery (1973 to 1974). While a fellow, she was recruited by both theUCLAJules Stein Eye Institute andCharles R. Drew University to co-found an ophthalmology residency program atMartin Luther King Jr. Hospital. She then began her career in Los Angeles, becoming the first woman ophthalmologist on the faculty at theJules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. When asked who her mentor was, Bath responded that her relationship with family physician Cecil Marquez inspired her to pursue this specific career.[5] She was appointed assistant chief of the King-Drew-UCLA Ophthalmology Residency Program in 1974 and was appointed chief in 1983.[21]
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 serve as key personnel providing screening, health education, and support for blindness prevention strategies.[5][11][22]
While at UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute, Bath established theKeratoprosthesis Program to provide advanced surgical treatment for blind patients. The program continues today as the KPRO, and thousands of patients have had their eyesight restored with this innovative technology. Based on her research and achievements with keratoprosthesis, Bath was chosen to lead the first national keratoprosthesis study in 1983.[23]
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.[6][5]
While at UCLA, Bath wanted to pursue research but was denied grants and resources by the National Institutes of Health and the National Eye Institute. It was then that she had decided to look further for the best laboratories in the world, to support her plans for innovation in the world of ophthalmology.[21] In 1986, Bath elected to take asabbatical from clinical and administrative responsibilities and concentrate on research.[24] She resigned her position as chair of ophthalmology and followed her research pursuits as visiting professor at centers of excellence inFrance,England, andGermany. In France, she served as a visiting professor at the Rothschild Eye Institute of Paris with DirectorDaniele Aron-Rosa. In England, she served as a visiting professor with Professor David C. Emmony at theLoughborough University of Technology. In Germany, she served as a visiting professor at theFree University of Berlin and the laser medical center.
In 1993, Bath retired from UCLA, which subsequently elected her the first woman on its honorary staff.[5][6]
Bath served as a professor of ophthalmology at Howard University's School of Medicine and as a professor oftelemedicine and ophthalmology atSt. George's University[22][25] ophthalmology training program.[26] As a strong advocate for telemedicine, Bath supported the development of virtual labs as a part of the curriculum in ophthalmology residency training programs, to provide surgeons with more realistic experience made possible by3D imaging. In an article written by Bath in the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, she proved that with better training and supervision in residency programs, students were able to achieve better results in their surgeries, leading to greater visual acuity.[27]
Bath lectured internationally and authored over 100 papers.[26]
Based on her observations at Harlem Hospital, Bath published the first scientific paper showing the higher prevalence of blindness among Blacks.[28][29] Bath also found that African American people had an eight times higher prevalence ofglaucoma as a cause of blindness.[30]
Based on her research, Bath pioneered the discipline ofcommunity ophthalmology in 1976.[31] After observing epidemic rates of preventable blindness among underserved populations in urban areas in the US as well as underserved populations in Third World countries.[28][32] Community ophthalmology was described as a new discipline in medicine that promotes eye health and blindness prevention through programs using methodologies frompublic health,community medicine, andophthalmology to bring necessary eye care to underserved populations.[5]
Bath's main humanitarian efforts were at the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness(AIPB). Co-founded in 1976 with Alfred Cannon, an American psychiatrist and community organizer, and Aaron Ifekwunigwe, a Nigerian-born pediatrician and human rights advocate, the organization was created on the principle that "eyesight was a basic human right." Through this organization, Bath spread eye care worldwide by providing newborns with free eye drops, vitamins, and vaccinations against diseases that can cause blindness, includingmeasles. Bath spent her time as director traveling the world performing surgeries, teaching, and lecturing at colleges.[33][3] Bath claimed her "personal best moment" was while she was in North Africa and, usingkeratoprosthesis, was able to restore the sight of a woman who been blind for over 30 years.[34]
With AIPB, Bath traveled toTanzania in 2005, where cataracts were the main cause of childhood blindness.[35] In Africa, AIPB provided computers and other digital resources for visually impaired students, specifically at the Mwereni School for the Blind in Tanzania and St. Oda School for the Visually Impaired in Kenya.[3]
Bath was recognized for her philanthropic work in the field of ophthalmology by PresidentBarack Obama. In 2009 she was on stage with President Obama and was appointed to commission for digital accessibility to blind children.[36]
In April 2019, Bath testified in a hearing called the "Trailblazers and Lost Einsteins: Women Inventors and the Future of American Innovation" at theSenate Office Building in Washington D.C. Bath discussed gender disparities in theSTEM and lack of female inventors.[37]
In 1986, Bath conducted research in the laboratory ofDanièle Aron-Rosa, a pioneer researcher in lasers and ophthalmology at Rothschild Eye Institute of Paris,[38] and then at the Laser Medical Center in Berlin, where she was able to begin early studies in lasercataract surgery, including her first experiment withexcimer laserphotoablation using human eye bank eyes.[38]
Bath coined the term "laser phaco" for the process, short for laser photoablative cataract surgery,[39] and developed the laser phaco probe, a medical device that improves on the use of lasers to remove cataracts, and "for ablating and removing cataract lenses". Bath first had the idea for this type of device in 1981, but did not apply for a patent until several years later.[40] The device was completed in 1986 after Bath conducted research on lasers inBerlin and patented in 1988,[41] making her the first African-American woman to receive a patent for a medical purpose.[11] The device — which quickly and nearly painlessly dissolves thecataract with alaser, irrigates and cleans the eye and permits the easy insertion of a newlens — is used internationally to treat the disease.[5][4][6] Bath continued to improve the device and successfully restored vision to people who had been unable to see for decades.[22][42]
Bath held five patents in the United States.[2] Three of Bath's five patents relate to the Laserphaco Probe.[22] In 2000, she was granted a patent for a method for using pulsedultrasound to remove cataracts,[6] and in 2003 a patent for combining laser and ultrasound to remove cataracts.
Dr. Bath had also been a Fellow of theAmerican College of Surgeons from 1976 to 1989, a fellow of theAmerican Academy of Ophthalmology, as well as a member of theAmerican Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and theAssociation for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.[43]
Bath was 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.[6] 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;[59] "Patricia Bath and Laser Surgery" by Ellen Labrecqua,[60] and "The Doctor with an Eye for Eyes: The Story of Dr. Patricia Bath" by Julia Finley Mosca,[25] 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[61]
Notes
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