February is the black history month.
Black women have made many inventions and discoveries that have improved public health and advanced technology. Thanks to the vision, determination and commitment of black scientists and inventors, health service providers can potentially identify, treat and even prevent fatal health conditions.
The technological achievements are not limited to black women with an advanced degree in medicine and science. The simple sanitary belt, an invention that made menstrual protection more accessible and comfortable for all women, was created from Mary Kenner’s hands, a black woman who recognized and found a solution.
It is a common story for many of the black female health pioneers who were recognized this month – they identified a gap in the care of women and people with color and aimed at removing them. Here are just a few of their innovations in the healthcare system.
1. Laserphaco probe – – Patricia Bath, MD
This device and technology revolutionized the cataract surgery by removing the lens by Patricia Bath, MD, made up the fragments of incision and vacuuming.
As an intern of the eye clinic on the Harlem Hospital and Columbia University, Bath noted that more patients in Harlem, a multi -time jam community, were blind or visually impaired than patients in Columbia. As a result, she carried out a study in the blindness in black patients was twice as high as white patients, and it came to the conclusion that inequality was due to lack of eye care.
Their work in creating the area of the community of the community increased the screening to under -supplied population groups, a practice that is now widespread worldwide, and led to previous treatment for visual problems. As a laser scholar and inventor, their interest, their experience and research on cataracts on their invention of a new device and a new method for removing cataracts – the LaserPhaco probe.
Bath was the first black woman who received a medical patent, and the first black woman to complete ophthalmology at New York University. In 2021 she was posted posthumously to the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
2. MRNA-1273 Technology Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire, Ph.D.
When Covid-19 became a worldwide pandemic in 2020, the world’s leading researchers began working against the virus. Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire, Ph.D. Leaded the team at the National Institute of Health (NIH), which developed this technology with which Covid vaccines were created.
Today she is an assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard Th Chan School of Public Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Freeman Hrabowski Scholar.
3. Herpes Zoster (Schindeln) Virus – Evelyn Carmon Nicol
The immunologist and microbiologist Evelyn Carmon Nicol was the first person who isolated the Varicella Zoster virus that causes chickenpox and shingles. She was also one of the first black women who received a patent for molecular biology.
Further successes were support in the development of the polio vaccine by cultivating the virus in Hela cells; Development test for toxoplasma gondii, the parasite, caused toxoplasmosis; and development of some of the first commercial test kits for HIV.
4. Adjustable sanitary belt – Mary Kenner
Mary Kenner invented an adjustable sanitary belt with a moisturizing bag to reduce the coloring by menstrual blood.
Kenner came from a family of inventors and grew with everyday objects to find effective solutions. Although connoisseurs started college at Howard University, she started for financial reasons and became a florist. Kenner still used her free time to work on inventions and received five patents, including the sanitary belt in 1957.
Before the development of glue maximum maximum pads, almost all women used sanitary belt to keep pads in their underwear. At that time, the sanitary belt represented the freedom of balls on rags or towels, which often changed and did not remain on the spot, which led to stain of clothing, symptoms and embarrassment. Kenner said that a company expressed interest in marketing her idea, but withdrawn when she learned that she was black.
In 1976, connoisseurs also patented a hiker with an adherable tray and a bag that she created after her sister was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
5. Newborn Sickenzellen -screening – Marilyn Hughes Gaston, MD
Marilyn Hughes Gaston, MD, published a study that led to a nationwide screening program to test newborns for sickle cell diseases that enabled them to receive immediate treatment.
Before her study was published in 1986, Gaston worked as a pediatrician in Cincinnati for years. But years earlier, as an intern in the Philadelphia General Hospital, she admitted a baby with a swollen hand. Gaston’s supervisory dweller could not find out why the baby’s hand was swollen and suggested that the blood test to be viewed after proving a sickle cell disease that the baby had.
This incident had Gaston devoted her life to the examination of the sickle cell disease in children and the routine screening promoted. She found that early treatment could help prevent complications in sickle diseases and to save the life of countless children. The screening of newborn -sichelle diseases is now a routine practice for public health.
6. Illusion station – Valerie Thomas
This device invented by Valerie Thomas uses Konkave Spiegel to create optical illusion images. NASA later used Thomas’ technology in its satellite technology. Thomas grew up to dream of working with electronics, but only got the opportunity to study physics at Morgan State College. In her last year, after she had registered for the opportunity to speak to Job recruiters, she heard a NASA representative who wanted to hire her after completing her.
In the Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA in Maryland, Thomas worked on numerous projects and was sent with computer technology. She contributed to Landsat Image Processing software systems that deliver images of the earth’s surface. Later she invented the illusion station and patented and patented -a kind of 3D display technology used in the operation.
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