“He cared when no one else did. He not only took the time to figure out what was wrong but listened to what I had to say no matter how crazy I may have sounded. Dr. Templin is a rare type of doctor—he’s the type that clearly loves his career and patients to the core,” said a former patient of David W. Templin, MD.
The quotation above summarizes what patients and colleagues thought of Dr. Templin, a rheumatologist who practiced at the Alaska Native Medical Center for over 50 years.
Dr. Templin died in June this year, having retired from his practice of rheumatology in 2022 at the age of 89.
A Little Background
Dr. Templin was born in Billings, Mont., to a church planter/itinerant preacher and a schoolteacher. He attended Wheaton College, Illinois, and completed his medical training at the University of Washington, Seattle.
Dr. Templin
Dr. Templin was commissioned through the U.S. Public Health Service and had his first assignment on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. After moving between Phoenix and Seattle with his wife and children, he moved the family to Anchorage in 1970. At that time, he promised his wife they would only stay for five years.
Ultimately, he stayed there the rest of his career.
Dr. Templin frequently traveled to regional villages to work with the Alaska Native population, bringing healthcare to the people instead of having them come to Anchorage. This typically meant flying several hundred miles to reach patients, usually on a commercial airline but sometimes also traveling by small plane or ferry. He would often end up staying in unique living arrangements without the usual traveler’s amenities.
He would typically hold clinics for two to five days at a stretch. This included visiting remote areas of Alaska as recently as the summer of 2020, visiting patients in places like Nome, Metlakatla and Kodiak. Primary care providers would help monitor patients between Dr. Templin’s visits, which were typically twice a year. All of this was in addition to regular clinics in Anchorage.
At age 76, in 2009, Dr. Templin was still providing care to 16 field clinic locations throughout Alaska, twice a year. The clinics were 250 to 900 miles away. In 2009, when nominating him for an ACR award, Elizabeth Ferucci, MD, MPH, wrote, “I don’t know any other clinician so dedicated to patient care that he is willing to spend 32 weeks out of the year in remote towns or villages away from family in order to provide clinical care to patients.” Dr. Ferucci works with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium in Anchorage.
In a nomination letter in 2009, Phillip L. Smith, MD, MPH, former director of planning, evaluation and research for the national Indian Health Service, praised Dr. Templin’s trailblazing efforts. “Combining a specialty service with a foundation of public health practice he organized, developed and implemented a very effective health program that not only improved the access to needed medical care for rural, remote, and frontier populations throughout all of the Alaska Native villages but improved the quality of life for many afflicted by disabling diseases of the bone and muscles through his state-of-the-art specialty clinical services. These field clinic service programs with an epidemiologic research focus have been unique in the Indian Health Services and its operations. … No other specialist has provided such extensive clinical services within the Indian Health Services,” Dr. Smith wrote.
Dr. Templin won the ACR’s Paulding Phelps award in 2009. (Click to enlarge.)
In 2009, Dr. Templin received the ACR Paulding Phelps award, which is given to a clinical rheumatologist for outstanding service to patients, community and the practice of medicine.
He retired from the U.S. Public Health Service after 30 years of service, then continued as a consultant and clinician through the end of 2022.
Dr. Templin also took part in trailblazing research funded by the National Institutes of Health on rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritis, which determined that these conditions were more common in circumpolar Indigenous populations.
Dr. Templin also had a variety of interests outside work, including hunting, subsistence fishing, writing a series of fantasy stories with his grandchildren as heroes and serving as a youth group leader at his church along with his wife Mickey.
Remembering Dr. Templin
Vivek R. Mehta, MD, medical director of rheumatology at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, recalls working with Dr. Templin and first meeting him in 2018 to interview for a rheumatologist position at the Alaska Native Medical Center. He recalled chatting with Dr. Templin and his wife.
“They were a significant factor in our decision to move to Anchorage,” he says. “Even though it was our first meeting, they made us feel comfortable and shared inspiring stories of their lives.”
Dr. Ferucci recalls reaching out to Dr. Templin after she had finished her fellowship in 2003 and was considering a move to Alaska.
“I was interested in a research career and while he saw himself as primarily a clinician, he had previously worked on several key studies of rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritis in the Alaska Native population, laying the foundation for the kinds of studies I wanted to do,” Dr. Ferucci says.
Dr. Ferucci says Dr. Templin was very supportive throughout her career. She also continued to marvel at his professional journey. “The most impressive part about Dr. Templin’s work as a rheumatologist was the high value he placed on knowing patients’ families and community connections,” she says.
“Because he had worked in general practice prior to rheumatology, there were several patients who he had actually delivered,” Dr. Ferucci says. “When taking a family history for a new patient, if they reported a family member with a rheumatic disease, he almost certainly had diagnosed and treated their family member and remembered them.”
She describes his story as an old-fashioned doctor who valued his career and patients and was always available for the rural doctors by phone.
Dr. Mehta says that Dr. Templin was what he considered to be the “ideal rheumatologist,” with complete dedication to his patients.
“On more than one occasion, I had patients who were unsure of their medical family history. When I checked with Dr. Templin, he would recall the details of multiple family members with autoimmune conditions,” Dr. Mehta says.
He also recalls seeing a patient with an unusual autoimmune presentation. Dr. Mehta briefly discussed the case with Dr. Templin, who returned a week later with the patient’s medical records from 40 years ago.
“He helped me decipher handwritten notes, which eventually led to the correct diagnosis. He routinely went above and beyond to ensure patients received the highest quality of care,” Dr. Mehta says.
“He embodies what I imagine when I think of a well-rounded rheumatologist—someone who leads with empathy and compassion, is always learning and staying current with the latest research and advancements in the field, and consistently advocates for patients,” Dr. Mehta says.
Vanessa Caceres is a medical writer in Bradenton, Fla.
