NCS Provider Champion Spotlight

Provider Champions are crucial to the success of the National Children’s Study. In an effort to continue to engage our Providers and also inform the community of our local Provider involvement,we present to you the Provider Champion Spotlight. Dr. Livingston, the Hinds County MS Study Location appreciates you!

Michael Livingston, MD

Growing up in the bayou town of Tallulah, Louisiana in the 1960s, there were few African American, male role models for Dr. Michael Livingston to follow. His parents divorced when he was five, leaving his mother and grandmother to raise him and his younger brother on a teacher’s salary. Dr. Livingston discovered his aptitude for science and began working toward a degree in Engineering. But, when he saw the accomplishments of the town’s first African American veterinarian-turned mayor, he became inspired to pursue a career in the medical profession. 

    

Dr. Livingston fell in love in his third year of medical school. Fortunately for his many patients, he fell for the specialty of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He’s still in love with his profession even after twenty-two years and thousands of babies delivered in Michigan, Alabama, Texas and Mississippi.

          

  “It’s the joy I see at the birth of a couple’s child,” he said.

Dr. Livingston’s patients reciprocate with cards, letters, and gifts of appreciation. These kind gestures serve to reaffirm his commitment to his profession.

As a physician who brings new life into the world, Dr. Livingston’s interests lie in the health and wellbeing of children. This is why he partnered with the National Children’s Study (NCS), the largest study of children’s health in the United States.

            “I see it as part of a process of helping to secure our children’s future,” he said.

He hopes the Study will provide new evidence as it relates to the treatment of diseases. Dr. Livingston’s particular wish is for the NCS to assist with establishing a preventive mindset in society as it relates to the ninety essential minerals and vitamins our diets lack which lead to certain disease processes.

If one word was used to describe Dr. Livingston, it would be “involved.” He’s involved in the NCS, in the lives of his patients, and in several professional capacities at Baptist Hospital. He's also an integral member of the New Hope Baptist Church where he’s active in the music, medical missions, layman, Sunday school, and health ministries.

Dr. Livingston is an avid skier and family man. He met his wife, LaDean at the Houston Ski Club. His fifteen year old daughter, Chelsea learned to ski when she was five. He hopes to teach the couple's five year old twins, Jessica and Jonathan how to ski this season.

At fifty-three, Dr. Livingston believes he’s in the best shape he’s ever been in. Even better than when he coached an intramural basketball team made up of his peers in 1978 at the summer program he attended at Harvard University. They won the championship trophy.

Dr. Livingston is still a champion today in the eyes of the National Children’s Study. Because of his support and the support of many OB/GYNs in Hinds County, the NCS is making a difference in the health and wellbeing of children in Hinds County and the nation.

Sidebar:

            Dr. Michael Livingston is the featured physician in the first NCS Provider Champion spotlighted in 2012. Dr. Livingston is Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology. He received his medical degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. He completed an internship and residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Providence Hospital in Southfield Michigan. Dr. Livingston currently serves as the Section Chief of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology for the Mississippi Baptist Medical Center; a Board Member of the Medical Management Provider Relations Committee for the Mississippi HealthPartners; and, a Board Member and Secretary for the Mississippi Comprehensive Health Insurance Risk Pool Association. He is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a member of the American Medical Association and the National Medical Association.