Contributor

Bill Davenhall

Senior Health Advisor at Esri

Bill leads the health and human services team at Esri, the largest geographic information system (GIS) software developer in the world. His customers include thousands of public health authorities, hospitals, medical centers, social service organizations, health research centers and health related foundations and NGO’s across the globe. Bill has over 30 years of experience in using geographic and demographic information to solve business, health and social problems. His knowledge and experience in creating new and useful intelligence out of what seems to be ordinary data is extensive. In the early 70’s he built the first geo-demographic models that helped some of America’s most well-known retail franchises expand across the nation; in the 80’s he founded a start-up healthcare market research company that developed the first national database of estimates for the demand of healthcare services. Bill also has held executive leadership roles in hospitals, medical clinics, human service agencies, health trade associations, research and consulting organizations, software technology, and health data companies. Bill earned a Masters Degree, with a concentration in Medical Behavioral Science, as the recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health Traineeship at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Bill has also served on various governmental and non-governmental boards in higher education, national research councils, and health related trade associations.  His research interests have included: spina bifida, smoking cessation, family resilience, child abuse, rural housing, substance abuse, health record accuracy, healthcare fraud, social service integration, and healthcare facility site selection. Bill has also authored many publications on the use of GIS by health professionals and has contributed to several text books on the subject of healthcare market research tools and analytical techniques.