Women in Innovation for World IP Day: Dr Patricia Bath

Dr. Patricia Bath was born in Harlem, New York in 1942. From a young age she was encouraged to peruse her academic interests - Patricia was given a chemistry set by her mother when she was a young girl, planting the initial seed of her interest in science. By age 16 she was one of few students selected to attend a cancer research workshop funded by the National Science Foundation, and her notable findings were noticed and included in a scientific paper by the head of the project. She graduated from high school in just two years, and went on to gain a medical degree from Howard University in 1968. From there she began an internship at Harlem hospital, alongside a fellowship in ophthalmology at Columbia University. She completed her residency in ophthalmology in 1973, becoming the first African American to do so. Later, she moved to California to work as an assistant professor of surgery at two local universities, and co-found the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in 1976. It was in 1981 that Patricia began to invent the Laserphaco Probe, a device which aims to restore the sight in blind individuals, quickly and painlessly, by dissolving the cataract with a laser and cleaning the eye in preparation to insert a new, clear lens. She received a US patent for her invention in 1988. This made her the first African-American female doctor to ever receive a patent for a medical purpose, and was later granted 4 patents, 3 of which are related to the Laserphaco Probe. Her resourceful mind and wonderful invention have changed lives, enabling her to go on to restore the vision of people who had been blind for over 30 years.