Considered to be a mover of the US National Health Information Infrastructure, Detmer has also been a consultant to the government of England and the Hospital Authority of Hong Kong.
While at Virginia he led implementation of a physician order entry system and was principal investigator of its IAIMS grant.
As a surgeon, he was instrumental in the adoption and development of ambulatory surgery in the early 1970s and was team physician for the Wisconsin Badgers for ten years while also serving as president of the medical staff.
Detmer was appointed as president and CEO of the American Medical Informatics Association in 2004 until 2009 when he became senior advisor to AMIA until 2011.
Currently, he serves on the boards of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives, the University of Virginia Colonnade Club, and the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center.