Patricia Bath persuaded her teachers at Howard College to weekly operate poor patients for free at Harlem Hospital.
She then began one of the pioneering works in the world in community ophthalmology, now a common extension in medical schools.
Patricia had already decided on the ophthalmology, and went to stay at New York University. And she was the first black woman to do it.
In 1978 she founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, and was its first President. In 1983 she became the first American woman named Head of Residence, at the Ophthalmology of Charles R. Drew Hospital. But it was between 1981 and 1988 that she developed her most relevant research for medicine, the LaserPhaco Probe.
In 1988 she completed LaserPhaco, closing her pioneering role as the first black woman to file a medical patent. LaserPhaco is used to date in cataract surgery to restore vision to people worldwide.