News from the AMA
Langston elected to board of trustees

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Family physician Edward Langston, M.D., was elected to the AMA Board of Trustees during the annual meeting of the AMA House of Delegates June 14 -- 19 in Chicago. Langston, of Lafayette, Ind., was nominated by the AAFP.

A past chair of the AMA Specialty and Service Society, Langston has been a member of the AMA Council on Medical Education since 1997. He served on the AAFP Board of Directors from 1991 to 1993 and was Board vice president in 1994.

Langston's campaign focused on three areas:

• Access -- providing health care coverage for all. The AMA, at its December 2002 interim meeting, passed a resolution calling on Congress to enact legislation guaranteeing health coverage for all U.S. residents by 2009. The resolution represented a six-month effort spearheaded by the AAFP that brought together multiple specialty groups within the AMA House of Delegates. It's time to press the issue on behalf of America's more than 40 million uninsured and 10 million underinsured, Langston noted.
  "This is a crisis, and our AMA should lead the pursuit of coverage. If we don't, others will," he said.
• Advocacy -- working together while respecting differences. Today's health policy landscape is filled with issues affecting all physicians, regardless of specialty. As such, it presents numerous opportunities for collaboration, said Langston. "While working together to address our patients' needs, we must unite our efforts to address critical professional issues  --  medical liability and tort reform, fair and equitable payment for services, and practice policies of all third-party payers."
• Action -- creating a new, more responsive AMA. "Our diversity is our strength, not a cause of divisiveness," Langston said. "Let's build a leaner, more responsive and more efficient AMA for the future. We can do it. We must do it."