In 1983, Dr. Patricia E. Bath became the first woman to chair an ophthalmology residency program in the U.S., at Drew-University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA). The following year she became the first woman faculty member in the Department of Ophthalmology at UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute.

Bath was instrumental in bringing ophthalmic surgical services to Harlem Hospital’s Eye Clinic, which did not perform eye surgery in 1968. She persuaded her professors at Columbia to operate on blind patients for free, and she volunteered as an assistant surgeon. The first major eye operation at Harlem Hospital was performed in 1970 as a result of her efforts.

Dr. Bath also discovered and invented a new device and technique for cataract surgery known as laserphaco.