Professor
Department of Epidemiology
111 Parran Hall
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh,PA 15261
Voice: 412-383-7244
E-mail: ronlaporte@aol.com

Research Interests

I am a Cognitive Psychologist turned epidemiologist. My primary interest is the application of Internet Technology to the prevention of disease. The concept is simple, since 1950 there has been 25 year world wide improvement of life expectancy. At least 20 of the year increase has been due to prevention. Most of prevention is merely the sharing of knowledge, prevention education. We are harnessing the Internet to improve knowledge sharing and prevention. We have created the Supercourse which has over 65,000 faculty world wide. We are sharing our knowledge by collecting the best PowerPoint lectures of prevention and science, and making these available through an open source lecture library (www.pitt.edu/~super1) I have published over 501 papers; and am Director for Disease Monitoring and Telecommunications at our WHO Collaborating center. I have several major projects in progress including mVets and Dying with Valor where we plan to cut mortality by one-half for homeless veterans and have almost all die with dignity.

Education

State University of New York at Buffalo Buffalo, New York	B.A. (Psychology), 1971
University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA	M.S. (Psychology), 1974
University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA	Ph.D. (Psychology), 1976
University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA	M.S.Hyg. (Epidemiology), 1980

Appointments and Positions

Sept. 2007-Present, Director	Multidisciplinary Masters of Public Health Program
Feb 1990 - Present, Professor	Department of Pediatrics (Secondary Appointment)
July 1990 - Present, Professor	Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh. Primary areas of interest, Internet, and health.
November 1983 - July 1990, Associate Professor	Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh. Primary area, the epidemiology of insulin dependent diabetes. Secondary areas include reproductive epidemiology, physical activity and injury.
July 1979-83, Assistant Professor	Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh. Areas of research the analysis of incidence trends in insulin dependent diabetes, relationship between alcohol consumption, lipoprotein levels and coronary heart disease and epidemiologic measurement of physical activity.
August 1976 - June 1979, Post doctoral Fellow	Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of June 1979 Public Health, University of Pittsburgh. Received training in chronic disease epidemiologyFaculty Advisor: Lewis H. Kuller, M.D.
September 1974 - August 1976, Teaching Fellow	Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh. Responsible for teaching statistics, research design and human psychology courses.
August 1971 - August 1974, Graduate Research Assistant	Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh. Conducted research in human learning and motivation. Designed, supervised data collection, and analyzed research projects.

Honors

• Best of the Web in Science (Science Magazine)
  
  
• Lilienfeld Award, Lifetime Achievement in education APHA, 2006
  
  
• Kelly West Award as Leading Diabetes Epidemiologist American Diabetes Association, 1988.
  
  
• Top 50 graduates of the Graduate School of Public Health in the last 50 years
  
  
• Distinguished Teaching Award, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh.
  
  
• Director, Disease Monitoring and Telecommunication, World Health Organization Collaborating Center (1988 present)
  
  
• PI, WHO Multinational Project on Childhood Diabetes (1990 1999), 155 centers in 70 countries
  
  
• Co-PI of the Global LEA (Lower Extremity Amputation) Project involving 23 countries.
  
  
• Faculty Member, World Health Organization, International Diabetes Epidemiology Training Course, Cambridge, England, 1983, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1996, 1999.
  
  
• Scientific Program Chairman, Diabetes Epidemiology Council, ADA (1983 1985).
  
  
• Former Associate Editor, Diabetes Care.
  
  
• Member, American Epidemiology Society
  
  
• Rated in the top 100 web pages by PC Magazine.
  
  
• Top 10 health citizens diplomacy awards.
  
  
• Top six health projects in the Global Information Infrastructure Awards, 1998.

Students: 30 Ph.D. students including a minister of health, four deans, and 25 professors.


Current Publications

1. Kuntoro, K., Mazumdar, S., LaPorte, R., Summary effect Size in Case-Control Studies - A Meta Analysis Approach in Epidemiologic Study, Journal of Mathematics and Statistics, 2011 (In Press).
   
   
2. Linkov F, Marler E, French B, Hennon M, Freese K, Sauer F, Shubnikov E, LaPorte R. Mobile Global Health Educase Quarterly Magazine, Volume 34, Number 1 http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/
   MobileGlobalHealth/225859
   
   
3. Kawkab Shishani, Carol Allen, Eugene Shubnikov, Khlood Salman, Ronald LaPorte, Faina Linkov. Nurse Educators Establishing New Venues in Global Nursing Education . Journal of Professional Nursing (accepted).
   
   
4. Padilla-Raygoza N, LaPorte RE, Shubnikov E, Hennon M, Edwards RP, Linkov, F The Need for More Educational Materials in Spanish on Cancer and Chronic Diseases: Special Applications for Minority Populations J Immigr Minor Health. 2011 May 11.
   
   
5. Lovalekar MT, Linkov F, Mathur SC, Bhave SY. Indian Supercourse in Epidemiology J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2010 Fall;30(4):260.
   
   
6. Linkov F, Padilla N, Shubnikov E, Laporte R. Global Networking of Cancer and NCD Professionals Using Internet Technologies: The Supercourse and mHealth Applications J Prev Med Public Health. 2010 Nov;43(6):472-8.
   
   
7. Sauer F, Bennett S, Cha M, Linkov F, LaPorte RE Supercourse, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and the Educator as Catalyst Educase Quarterly 3, 2010 http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/
   SupercourseBibliothecaAlexandr/213718
   
   
8. Linkov F, Ardalan A, Hennon M, Shubnikov E, Serageldin I, LaPorte R Using Google Trends to assess interest in disasters Prehop Disaster med. 2010 Sp-Oct; 24 (5): 482-4
   
   
9. Yang Y, Chen Y, Chotani RA, LaPorte RE, Ardalan A, Shubnkov E, Linkov F, Huang J. Chinese Disasters and Just -in Time Education Prehosp Disaster Med 2010 Ded; 101 (12):1070-1
   
   
10. Linkov F, LaPorte R Seelman K Cancer, disability and public health service providers: better education through informatics and the Supercourse Int. J. Public Policy Volume 6, Numbers 3-4, 5 September 2010 , pp. 247-259(13)