Chapter 4: Blindness Associated with Health Care: Disparities and Critical Race Theory

Prior to the submission of this manuscript, ophthalmologist Patricia Bath passed. Bath was the first African American female doctor to receive a patent for a medical invention—the Laserphaco Probe for cataract treatment in 1986. Bath’s Laserphaco Probe helped to advance the study of cataract surgery and has been credited for restoring the sight of individuals who had been blind for more than 30 years. On April 3, 2019, Bath testified before a Senate Judiciary Board in Washington where she shared her struggles as a black and female inventor. In her “personal story-telling narrative” below, Bath tells of her observations and findings about a large discrepancy in the rates of blindness between the majority-black patients of her career while interning at Harlem Hospital and Columbia University.