Marty LaVenture, MPH, PhD, FACMI

Marty LaVenture is a nationally, recognized expert in public health informatics with special involvement in epidemiology, population health, and e-health. He has wide experience with academic and applied research, policy development, education and training at the state and local health departments. He is the lead architect of the internationally recognized Informatics Savvy Health Department framework and has delivered numerous presentations to state and local audiences on the framework.

He is the former Director of the Office of Health IT and e-Health and center for health informatics at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), an office he founded in 2001 and led until his retirement from MDH in July, 2018. He also directed the statewide Minnesota e-Health Initiative, a public – private collaborative chartered to advance EHR adoption and use in Minnesota. He has also served as assistant state epidemiologist for the State of Wisconsin, Division of Public Health for a decade where he led groundbreaking investigations of outbreaks of legionaries Disease and Toxic Shock Syndrome, Lyme disease and others and where he pioneered the first state level online database for disease surveillance. He has a master’s degree in epidemiology and a PhD in Health Informatics from the University of Minnesota. He is first state health department leader to be elected as a Fellow of the American college of medical informatics (FACMI).

Dr. LaVenture has authored numerous publications, including lead author of the chapter on public health informatics in the 4^th and 5th editions of the Shortliffe & Cimino’s Textbook of Biomedical Informatics (BMI). He has delivered many presentations to state and national audiences and he has received multiple awards for his work and accomplishments.