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Her patents

Patricia Bath's U.S. patents:

Pat. No. 4,7443,60: Apparatus for ablating and removing cataract lenses, issued 17 May 1988.

Pat. No. 5,843,071: Method and apparatus for ablating and removing cataract lenses, issued 1 December 1998.

Pat. No. 5,919,186: Laser apparatus for surgery of cataractous lenses, issued 6 July 1999.

Pat. No. 6,083,192: Pulsed ultrasound method for fragmenting/emulsifying and removing cataractous lenses, issued 4 July 2000.







http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/ilives/bath/bath.html

Women inventors in Patricia Bath’s time period

How women in Patricia’s time period, field of study and Culture used Technology[1]

 

There were many women inventors in Patricia Bath’s time period. For example, Virginia Apagar invented a very useful tool for women during her time. She was born in 1909 and died in 1974 and was a professor of anesthesiology at the New York Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Her invention was the Apgar scale which she created in 1953. This is a simple, standardized scale that was used to check the physical status of a baby right after being born. It checks the heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflex response, and color and is usually done after one minute of being born and then again after five minutes of being born. While these tests are being done, the doctor is quickly alerted if the baby needs help. I’m sure this invention has saved many babies since being created and continues to do so today. Another female inventor of that time was Gertrude Elion. She was born January 23, 1918 and died February 21, 1999. She was a Nobel Prize winning biochemist who invented many drugs. Some of these drugs included 6-thioguanine which fights leukemia, Imuran, Zovirax, and many others. She was named on 45 patents for drugs and since these drugs were invented, has saved thousands of people.

I also found that there were many African American women who invented technologies. One woman named Sarah Goode invented a folding cabinet bed in 1885. This cabinet folded up against the wall, but when folded, it was used as a desk with compartments. She was a business woman who owned a furniture store in Chicago and invented this bed for people living in small apartments. Her patent was the first one obtained by an African-American woman inventor (Zoom Inventors and Inventions). Another African-American woman was Madame C.J. Walker. She was an inventor, business woman, and self-made millionaire. She created many beauty and hair care products. She started her cosmetics business in 1905 and the first product she released was a scalp treatment that used petrolatum and sulphur. Her products became very popular so she started selling door-to-door. Because of its popularity, she added many new products to her line and soon had saleswomen who sold her products door-to-door and to beauty salons and called them “Walker Agents” (Zoom Inventors and Inventions).

There were many women who used technology in Patricia Bath’s field of medicine. One woman named Ida Henrietta Hyde who lived from 1857 to 1945 was an American physiologist who invented the microelectrode in the 1930s. This device electrically stimulates a living cell and records the electrical activity within that cell (Zoom Inventors and Inventions). Ida was the first woman to graduate from the University of Heidelberg, to do research at the Harvard Medical School and to be elected to the American Physiological Society (Zoom Inventors and Inventions). Another woman named Rosalyn S. Yalow co-invented the radioimmunoassay in 1959. What this did was chemically analyze human blood and tissue. It is used to diagnose illnesses, such as diabetes. This invention revolutionalized diagnoses because it uses only a tiny sample of blood or tissue and is inexpensive and simple to use. It can detect drug use, high blood pressure, infertility, and many others. In 1977, she won a Nobel Prize in Medicine for inventing this.

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[1] http://willettt.wordpress.com/culture-site/how-women-in-patricias-time-period-field-of-study-and-culture-used-technology/

Woman inventor

Patricia Bath – An African American Woman Inventor

 

 

When I think of inventions, what comes to mind are those that we use everyday, such as computers or electricity. Inventions can be any new kind of technology though, so it can be something small like a swivel chair to something more important such as a medical technology. People have been inventing things for hundreds of years, but men tend to get the most recognition. Many women have contributed many technologies, such as sewing machines and medical technologies. It has become amazing what people can create to help us in our everyday lives. Medical technologies have especially been helpful in letting us live longer. Inventions such as birth control for women now help us to plan exactly when we want to have children, rather than having to plan everything else around suddenly being pregnant. It’s even come so far as doctors letting us choose the sex of our baby. Sometimes I wonder where we would be without technology; how would we live without computers making our lives easier or how our lives would be different without telephones, televisions, or vehicles. Our lives are so much easier than five hundred years ago and who knows where we’ll be in another five hundred years. What I decided to concentrate on for my project was an African-American woman who invented a very important medical technology and has accomplished a lot with this invention in her life. She is still alive so this invention is still relatively new, but has had a major impact on blind people and has greatly improved eye surgery. This woman’s name is Patricia Bath and she invented the Cataract Laserphaco Probe that vaporizes cataracts from a person’s eyes quickly and painlessly.

Bath's early life

Patricia Bath’s early life [1]

Patricia Era Bath was born on November 4, 1942, in Harlem, New York, to Rupert Bath, the first black motorman for the New York City subway system, and Gladys Bath, a housewife and domestic worker who used her salary to save money for her children's education. Bath was encouraged by her family to pursue academic interests. Her father, a former Merchant Marine and an occasional newspaper columnist, taught Bath about the wonders of travel and the value of exploring new cultures. Her mother piqued the young girl's interest in science by buying her a chemistry set.

As a result, Bath worked hard on her intellectual pursuits and, at the age of 16, became one of only a few students to attend a cancer research workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The program head, Dr. Robert Bernard, was so impressed with Bath's discoveries during the project that he incorporated her findings in a scientific paper he presented at a conference. The publicity surrounding her discoveries earned Bath the Mademoiselle magazine's Merit Award in 1960.

After graduating from high school in only two years, Bath headed to Hunter College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in 1964. She then attended Howard University to pursue a medical degree. Bath graduated with honors from Howard in 1968, and accepted an internship at Harlem Hospital shortly afterward. The following year, she also began pursuing a fellowship in ophthalmology at Columbia University. Through her studies there, she discovered that African Americans were twice as likely to suffer from blindness than other patients to which she attended, and eight times more likely to develop glaucoma. Her research led to her development of a community ophthalmology system, which increased the amount of eye care given to those who were unable to afford treatment.

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[1] http://www.biography.com/people/patricia-bath-21038525

dr.patricia bath ( video)

Dr. Patricia Bath

Fight for the Right to Sight

Imagine living in a world ranging from hazy, clouded vision to that of total darkness for 30 years. Before 1985, that was the plight of those with cataracts who did not want to risk surgery with a mechanical grinder. Now imagine sitting in a doctor's office without being able to see her as she explains that it may be possible to restore your vision. You can't tell by studying body language whether to trust this person or if they're pulling your leg. All you have to go by is the sound of the voice assuring you that this procedure is safe, more accurate and more comfortable than traditional cataract surgery.
As a noted Opthamologist and famous black inventor, Dr. Patricia Bath has dedicated her life to the treatment and prevention of visual impairments. Her personal belief that everyone has the "Right to Sight" led to her invention in 1985 of a specialized tool and procedure for the removal of cataracts. With the Laserphaco Probe and procedure, Dr. Bath increased the accuracy and results of cataract surgery, which had previously been performed manually with a mechanical grinder.
The difference between the old method and her new invention was the difference between the use of highly accurate laser technology and the somewhat subjective accuracy of a mechanical device. The Laserphaco Probe combined an optical laser, irrigation system and suction tubes. In use, the laser is inserted into a tiny incision on the eye; the laser then vaporizes the cataract and lens material, which is removed via the suction tubes. A replacement lens is then inserted on the eye.
With the Laserphaco Probe invention and the development of the procedure for its use, Dr. Bath helped restore the sight of several people who had been blinded by cataracts for up to 30 years. Imagine the joy they felt when they opened their eyes to see Dr. Patricia Bath's smiling face for the first time.