<html> [Useful links and biographies on Patricia Bath and Bessie Blount below. Diane] Part 1:  African American Innovations <a href="http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blkidprimer6_12aa.htm" eudora="autourl">http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blkidprimer6_12aa.htm</a> Part 2:  African American Innovations <a href="http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blkidprimer6_12aa2.htm" eudora="autourl">http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blkidprimer6_12aa2.htm</a> Part 3:  African American Innovations <a href="http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blkidprimer6_12aa3.htm" eudora="autourl">http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blkidprimer6_12aa3.</a><a href="http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blkidprimer6_12aa3.htm" eudora="autourl">htm </a>Part 4: African American Innovations <a href="http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blkidprimer6_12aa4.htm" eudora="autourl">http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blkidprimer6_12aa4.</a><a href="http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blkidprimer6_12aa4.htm" eudora="autourl">htm </a>Dr. Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist from New York, but living in Los Angeles when she received her patent, became the first African American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical invention. Patricia Bath's patent (no. 4,744,360), a method for removing cataract lenses, transformed eye surgery, using a laser device making the procedure more accurate. Patricia E. Bath’s passionate dedication to the treatment and prevention of blindness led her to develop the Cataract Laserphaco Probe. The probe, patented in 1988, is designed to use the power of a laser to quickly and painlessly vaporize cataracts from patients’ eyes, replacing the more common method of using a grinding, drill-like device to remove the afflictions. With another invention, Bath was able to restore sight to people who had been blind for over 30 years. Patricia Bath also holds patents for her invention in Japan, Canada, and Europe.   Patricia Bath graduated from the Howard University School of Medicine in 1968 and completed specialty training in ophthalmology and corneal transplant at both New York University and Columbia University. In 1975, Bath became the first African-American woman surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center and the first woman to be on the faculty of the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute. She is the founder and first president of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness. Patricia Bath was elected to Hunter College Hall of Fame in 1988 and elected as Howard University Pioneer in Academic Medicine in 1993. Bessie Blount, was a physical therapist who worked with soldiers injured in W.W.II. Bessie Blount's war service inspired her to patent a device, in 1951, that allowed amputees to feed themselves. The electrical device allowed a tube to deliver one mouthful of food at a time to a patient in a wheelchair or in a bed whenever he or she bit down on the tube. She later invented a portable receptacle support that was a simpler and smaller version of the same, designed to be worn around a patient's neck. Bessie J. (Griffin) Blount was born in Hickory, Virginia in 1914. She moved from Virginia to New Jersey where she studied to be a physical therapist at the Panzar College of Physical Education and at Union Junior College and then furthered her training as a physical therapist in Chicago.   In 1951, Bessie Blount started teaching Physical Therapy at the Bronx Hospital in New York. She was unable to successfully market her valuable inventions and found no support from United States Veteran's Administration, so she gave the patent rights to the French government in 1952. The French government put the device to good use helping to make life better for many war vets.   "a black woman can invent something for the benefit of humankind" - Bessie Blount </html>