Charles Austin Doan was born in 1896 in Nelsonville, Ohio. He enrolled at Hiram College and after he became a senior left on November 7, 1917 to join the U.S. Army Medical Corps where he did clinical laboratory work. He served in World War I and World War II. He then enrolled at the University of Cincinnati completing the requirements for entrance into The Johns Hopkins Medical School, and during his four years there he spent two summers in investigative work at Harvard and one summer at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.

Following receipt of his M.D. degree in 1923 he studied abroad for some months then returned to the department of Medicine at Harvard. For the next five years he was associated with the Rockefeller Institute and working there with Florence Sabin, M.D. from 1925 to 1930.

In 1930, he came to Ohio State University as Professor of Medicine as well as Director of the newly established Department of Medical and Surgical Research. At Ohio State, Doan served as Professor and Chairman, Department of Medical and Surgical Research, 1930 - 1936; Professor of Research Medicine, 1936 - 1961; Professor of Medicine, 1936 - 1961; Chair, Department of Medicine, 1936 - 1944; Dean, College of Medicine, 1944 - 1961; Physician-in-Chief, Starling Loving and St. Francis Hospitals, 1936 - 1944; Director of Starling Loving Hospital, 1944 - 1951; Director of University Hospital and Health Center, 1951 - 1961; and, Chief of Division of Hematology, 1952 - 1966.

He was the single individual most responsible for the conception and the fundraising of the new University Hospital which was completed in 1951. University Hospital was renamed Doan Hall in 1984. He also encouraged the development of the College of Nursing, and acquired what became Upham and Means Hall.

He was chair of the hematology Study Section in the early days of the NIH, and President of the American Society of Hematology. He was a special consultant to the U.S. Department of State and the National Cancer Institute. He became one of the editors of Blood, and the Journal of Hematology.

Doan was one of the major individuals who helped established blood banking and the volunteer donor program while he was a member of the Medical Advisory Board and the American Red Cross.

He published more than 250 scientific articles. Doan was named dean emeritus when he retired in 1961. He continued his practice long after. Doan had two daughters: Elizabeth and Ellen. He died on February 13, 1990 at the age of 93.