Formatting necessary for an accurate reading of this text may be shown by tags (e.g., <DELETED> or <BOLD>) or may be missing from this TXT display. For complete and accurate display of this text, see the PDF.
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E768]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
INVENTOR AND PIONEERING EYE DOCTOR, PATRICIA BATH
______
HON. KAREN BASS
of california
in the house of representatives
Thursday, June 13, 2019
Ms. BASS. Madam Speaker, I rise to take special note of the passing
of a long-time constituent, Dr. Patricia E. Bath, an ophthalmologist
whose career included a special focus on combating preventable
blindness in underserved populations. Among many remarkable
accomplishments, she was the first black female doctor to patent a
medical invention, a laser device for treating cataracts.
Just two months ago, on April 3, 2019, Dr. Bath testified before the
Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property in a hearing
entitled ``Trailblazers and Lost Einsteins: Women Inventors and the
Future of American Innovation.'' There she noted gender disparities
that result in fewer women inventors and made recommendations to
improve the barriers she saw as holding back American innovation.
Right out of medical school, she was struck by discrepancies in
vision problems between the primarily Black patient population she saw
for her internship at Harlem Hospital and the largely white population
she saw at an eye clinic at Columbia University. Her findings that
blindness was twice as prevalent among Black people as among white
people would drive her lifelong commitment to bringing quality eye care
to underserved people around the globe.
An educator and researcher, in 1974 she joined the faculties of the
University of California, Los Angeles, and the nearby Charles R. Drew
University of Medicine and Science.
In 1976 she founded the nonprofit American Institute for the
Prevention of Blindness, to promote what Dr. Bath called ``community
ophthalmology,'' which advances optic health through grass-roots
screenings, treatments and education.
Her research and her work with cataract patients in the early 1980s
led her to envision the device that became known as the laserphaco
probe, which uses laser technology to remove the cataracts that cloud
the lens of the eye. The United States Patent and Trademark Office,
which has singled out Dr. Bath's achievement several times, said in
2014 that the device had ``helped restore or improve vision to millions
of patients worldwide.
Dr. Bath's dedication, insight and brilliance repeatedly overcame
challenges from prevailing attitudes about women and African Americans
in medicine. The recipient of numerous awards and accolades, Dr. Bath
described her ``personal best moment'' as using an implant procedure
called keratoprosthesis to restore the sight of a woman in North Africa
who had been blind for 30 years.
Forty years ago, Dr. Bath wrote in the Journal of the National
Medical Association that ``Disproportionate numbers of blacks are
blinded by preventable causes. However, thus far, no national
strategies exist for reducing the excessive rates of blindness among
the black population.'' As we honor her memory and her contributions,
her challenge to us remains.
____________________