Senior Investigator
Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Northwest
Mark Schmidt, PhD, MPH, is an infectious disease epidemiologist with interdisciplinary training in molecular epidemiology and complex systems.
Dr. Schmidt’s primary research portfolio currently includes studies of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine effectiveness, chronic hepatitis B and C viral infection, extraintestinal E. coli disease, and C. difficile occurrence and quality of life. He is also the site principal investigator of the Connect for Cancer Prevention Study, which aims to recruit a cohort of 200,000 adults in the United States to further investigate the etiology of cancer and its outcomes. Outside of these research studies, Dr. Schmidt participates in Kaiser Permanente (national) and Kaiser Permanente Northwest (regional) COVID-19 surveillance and forecasting teams to provide epidemiological assessments on the state of the pandemic to health care operations leaders.
Dr. Schmidt is also passionate about working to improve health outcomes in — and reduce the significant health disparities faced by — sexual and gender minority populations. He has studied sexually transmitted infection testing among individuals beginning HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, assessed barriers to knowledge of family history for cancer among LGBTQ+ individuals, and used electronic health record data to identify health disparities faced by transgender individuals. Within this realm, Dr. Schmidt participates in operational efforts to understand and improve the collection and quality of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data within research studies and in clinical settings.
Dr. Schmidt has worked at CHR since 2009. Prior to this, he worked for 10 years for the Oregon and Michigan state health departments, focusing on HIV/AIDS and communicable disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, bioterrorism preparedness, and pandemic influenza planning. He received his BS in biochemistry, MPH in hospital and molecular epidemiology, and PhD in epidemiologic science from the University of Michigan.