#12: Patricia Bath – Laserphaco Cataract Device
Dr. Patricia Bath, born in Harlem in 1942, invented the Laserphaco Probe, a laser device to remove cataracts with speed and surgical precision. When she patented it in 1988, she became the first Black woman doctor to hold a U.S. patent for a medical invention. Not content to invent, she co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness and traveled to underserved countries to perform surgeries herself. She died in 2019, but her Laserphaco technique now stands as the standard for cataract surgery.
