Noted ophthalmologist and inventor Patricia Bath, MD, died May 30 from cancer-related complications, Time reports. She was 76.
Dr. Bath was the first African American female clinician to receive a medical patent. She invented a more precise cataract treatment.
She was the first African American surgeon at UC Los Angeles Medical Center and the first female ophthalmology faculty member at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute.
Dr. Bath became chair of the King-Drew-UCLA Ophthalmology Residency Program in 1983. She was the first woman in the U.S. to lead a residency program.
She is survived by her daughter, a granddaughter and a brother.