vitalalumni
A Passion for Service
Edward Langston, M.D.’75, 2007-08 chairman of the American Medical Association’s board of trustees, remembers the exact moment he felt compelled to become a doctor. He was a Navy pharmacy officer at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, when he wandered into the ER one Sunday afternoon and witnessed a young medical officer’s heroics in treating an injured patient.
“I’ll always remember that Sunday afternoon,” he says.
But Langston also felt called to public service, even after he left the Navy, and has been a committed physician leader throughout his career. He has championed access to health care and patient advocacy, and he has held several high profile positions with both pharmacy and medical organizations.
He’s especially proud of his work during the last 20 years with the AMA. From his top post at the AMA, Langston ensures the organization remains focused on its essential purpose, which is to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.
“I enjoy my work on behalf of the AMA to provide the best care for America’s patients. I’m committed to listening and making informed decisions to help serve doctors and patients. I would hope that the values I’ve had ingrained in me all my life have helped to impact policies in positive ways.”
From Farm Boy to Physician
Those values took shape while growing up in Burlington, Ind., in the 1950s. In this small Carroll County farming community 50 miles north of Indianapolis, Langston worked on the family farm, showed cattle at local 4H fairs, and, like most other boys in Indiana, played basketball. He describes his childhood as unpretentious.
Langston eventually left the farm and went to Purdue University, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy, and then joined the Navy. After his a-ha moment in the Camp Lejeune ER, his next step was to get his wife on board.
“At the time I first considered medical school, my wife Linda and I had two young children, and she was not keen on the idea,” he admits. “She knew I would spend a great deal of time working and wasn’t convinced she wanted that kind of lifestyle.”
Ultimately, Langston won his wife’s support and applied to two medical schools. He was accepted by both and chose IU, which he describes as a “tremendous experience.”
Because he enjoyed the broad spectrum of medicine and because he wanted to raise his children in a rural setting, Langston chose to specialize in family medicine. After completing residency at St. Mary’s Graduate Medical Center in Evansville, Ind., the family moved to Flora, Ind., near Langston’s hometown. He immersed himself within the small community.
“It takes a special personality to practice in a rural area,” Langston says. “Your relationships are different. Your patients are the people you go to ball games with; they are your friends and your neighbors.”
Finding young physicians who want to practice in rural settings is one of the current challenges in medicine, according to Langston. “Fewer people are choosing general medicine or internal medicine. Those who do practice in a rural setting do so most likely because they are returning to a community where they have a relationship.”
Serving His Profession
In Flora, Langston began his long-standing and esteemed record of service in professional organizations. During this time, he served as the chair of the Commission on Legislation and on the board of trustees of the Indiana State Medical Association. He would later serve as president of the Indiana Academy of Family Physicians.
Eventually, there were other job opportunities and Langston would leave Carroll County for the second time. Fulfilling his interest in teaching, he moved to Indianapolis in 1988 to become program director of the Community Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program, and, in 1993, to Houston, where he was family medicine program director and associate professor at Texas Medical Center. His next post was Rock Island, Illinois, where he was vice president of medical affairs and medical education for the Trinity Regional Health System. There, he was nominated by the Illinois Medical Society and appointed by the governor to serve on the state Medicaid Prescription Drug Advisory Committee. The Langstons returned to Indiana in 2000, and Dr. Langston resumed a private practice in Lafayette.
“When we moved back to Indiana I said [to my wife] I would start to back off some of my work with organizations, but that only lasted a couple of years,” he jokes. Langston is the coordinator and secretary of the Lafayette Medical Education Foundation and is a clinical assistant professor at the Purdue School of Pharmacy. Since 2005, he has served as a commissioner for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
Langston has seen many facets of medicine evolve over the years. “If you understand pathology, physiology and pharmacology—what I call the three Ps—you understand the basis of medicine. What changes is the knowledge surrounding them, for instance, the introduction of more sophisticated medications and designer drugs. It’s the face of medical knowledge that changes. Staying current on those changes is a continual intellectual challenge.”
Langston believes his biggest contribution to the medical profession is, “having the ability to impact lives,” something he’s been able to do as a physician, teacher and shaper of public policy in both pharmacy and medicine.
His distinguished career started on a Sunday afternoon that he’ll never forget. As he says, “The rest is history.”
An advocate for community involvement, Dr. Langston helps a member of the Faith Baptist Church fill DVD requests following a program at the Faith Baptist Community Center in Lafayette.
Dr. Langston talks with a fellow IU alumni Joe D. Keck after the program at the community center.
