Curriculum Vitae
Robert M. Sweet, M.D.

Education and Training
Licensure and Certification
Employment
Professional Societies
Committees and Activites
Reviewer
Grants, Awards and Honors
Mentorship
Research Activities
Presentations/Press and Academic Functions
Publications

EDUCATION AND TRAINING:

1999-2003
University of Washington Medical Center Department of
Urology, Seattle, WA

Urology Resident: 1997-1999
University of Washington Medical Center
Department of General Surgery, Seattle, WA

General Surgery Resident: 1993-1997
University of Minnesota Medical School
Minneapolis, MN

Doctor of Medicine: 1988-1992
Alpha Omega Alpha
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, WI

Bachelor of Science Zoology
Summa Cum Laude

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LICENSURE AND CERTIFICATION:

State of Washington Department of Health
2003-present

Diplomate of the American Board of Urology
Board certified 2/2005.

Da Vinci Robot certified
January 2004

Laser and advanced endoscopy/laparoscopy certified
U of Washington
2003-present

Core-therm Microwave certified
August, 2003

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EMPLOYMENT:

7/2005-present
Assistant Professor, Department of Urologic Surgery
University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota

7/2003-7/2005
Attending Physician/Acting Assistant Professor of Urology
University of Washington Medical Center
Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, Washington
VA Puget Sound Medical Center, Seattle, Washington

Consultant/Chief Medical Technology Advisor, Red Llama LLC-Development of the Simpraxis™ cognitive simulator platform (Patent pending)

Consultant Mimic Technology, Seattle, WA-Robotic/simulation interface development

Consultant ACMI-CoreTherm Preceptorship program

2000-01
Urology Clinical Consultant
Washington State Correctional Facilities, Monroe, WA

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PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES:

Member, American Medical Association
Member, American Cancer Society
Member, Association of Surgical Educators
Member, Endourological Society
Associate Member, American Urological Association
Member, Western Section of American Urological Association

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COMMITTEES and ACTIVITIES:

Chairman of the Technical Advisory Board and Co-Director of the Institute for Surgical and Interventional Simulation (ISIS) University of Washington, April 2004-present

Sponsored Participant in the Conference on Surgical Errors (COSE) consensus meeting, Washington DC, March 2004

Executive Committee Member, ISIS, University of Washington

Organizing Committee Member Medicine, Meets Virtual Reality 14 conference, January 2006

Voting Member, AUA Surgical Simulation Committee, 2003-2005

University of Washington Committee on Advanced Surgical Technology

Faculty member, Human Interface Technology Laboratory

Committee member, University of Minnesota Medical School Admissions Committee

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REVIEWER:

Reviewer, Journal of Endourology
Reviewer, Urology

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GRANTS, AWARDS, & HONORS:

Post-medical school

Who’ Who in Medical Sciences Education
Washington Research Foundation Award, 2005
Technology Gap Initiatives Fund Award, 2005 
University of Washington “Innovators” award, 2004, 2005

American Foundation of Urological Diseases Scholar 2003-2005: “Objective skills assessment of urological procedures through the development, validation and application of virtual reality simulation”. Mentors: Richard M. Satava, MD, FACS, Mika Sinanan, MD, PhD,  Thomas Furness, PhD, Paul Lange, MD

The Pfizer Scholar Award, 2002
Astra Zeneca grant for simulation research, 2003-current

The J. Tate Mason Award for Outstanding Presentation by a Urology Resident.  Northwest Urological  Society, December, 2001.  “The Virtual TURP: a hands-on virtual/physical hybrid model for training physicians to perform TURP”

The Endourological Society Annual Essay Contest-3rd place, September, 2001.  “The Simulation of Bleeding in Endoscopic Procedures Using Virtual Reality”

The Warren H. Chapman Resident Research Award, the University of Washington Department of Urology, 2000-2001.

ACMI Research Grant for the Virtual TURP project 2000-2001, with an extension for 2001-2003

Financial contribution by patient in my name to the Seattle Medic One Foundation for excellence in patient care

Medical School

Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society
Clinical Honors: Urology, Surgery, OBGYN, Nephrology, Radiology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Internal Medicine II
Basic Science Honors: Gross Anatomy, Histology, Microbiology, Pharmacology, Pathology, Human Sexuality
American Cancer Society Scholarship, 2 years

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MENTORSHIP:

Tim Kowalewski, BS-Dept. Electrical Engineering, Mary Gates Scholarship awarded for-UW TURP project, 2002-2004.

Shelly Bagai, BS-UW Medical School, Med3, Validation of UW TURP simulator, 2002-present.

Linh Tran-Dept. of Bioengineering, Mary Gates Scholarship awarded for-Validation of the PLND trainer, 2003-present.

Scott Gregory, BS-Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Tracking solutions for Surgical Simulators, 2003-present.

Jonathon Wright, MD-Dept. of Urology, Pain control during transurethral microwave therapy, 2004-present.

Marc Dallera, MD-Dept. of Urology, Faculty Mentor

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RESEARCH ACTIVITIES (Active):

Principal Investigator, Department of Urology and Human Interface Technology
Laboratory 2000-present. Developing and testing applications of virtual reality in Urology.

Principal-Investigator, Human Interface Technology Laboratory, Seattle, WA, 2001-present.  Use of Virtual Reality as Adjunctive Anesthesia in Local Transurethral Procedures (PI). This sub-project developed under NIH grant (Patterson PI), was designed to investigate whether immersion into a virtual environment provides superior relief of pain, anxiety and discomfort during transurethral procedures when compared to standard techniques of distraction.

Co-Investigator, Biorobotics Department, University of Washington, 2004-present
The Surgical Cockpit: Enhancing Surgical Precision via Surgical Robotics

Principal Investigator, Blake Hannaford, PhD. Developing simulation and robotic interfaces.

Co-Investigator, Chronic Prostatitis Collaborative Research Network, NIDDK

Principal Investigator, John Krieger, MD.  Long term goals are to define the etiology, develop effective treatments, and prevent chronic prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain syndrome. 10/2003-present.

Consultant, Mimic Technologies,  DARPA,  Defense Sciences Research and Technology, Principal Investigator, Jeffrey Berkley, PhD., Embedded Training  into Robotic Surgical Systems, 7/1/2003

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PRESENTATIONS AND PRESS AND ACADEMIC FUNCTIONS:

Plenary talk, Society of Urology and Engineering, San Antonio, TX, 5/2005
“Surgical Simulation and Training: a new paradigm in surgical education”

The UW Board of Directors, University of Washington, 5/2005
“The Curriculum of the future: a new ecology of learning”

Festschrift for the Washington Research Foundation, UW, 5/2005
“The UW TURP Simulator, a validated tool to train resection skills”

Invited speaker: The Council of Deans, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 4/2005
"A New Ecology of Learning: the transformation of medical education with information technologies”

The Joint Conference Board Committee, University of Washington, 1/2005
“The Institute for Surgical and Interventional Simulation (ISIS) at the UW”

Moderator, Grand Rounds, University of Washington, 1/2005
“Ethical Dilemmas in Urology”

Northwest Urological Association, Vancouver, B.C., 12/2004
"Face and Content validity of the SimPraxis pelvic lymph node dissection interactive cognitive trainer”

Family Practice symposium, University of Washington Shoreline Clinic, 9/2004
“BPH”

WS AUA, expert panelist, San Diego, CA, 8/2004
Poster session: “BPH and Prostate Cancer”

WS AUA, video presentation, San Diego, CA, 8/2004
“An interactive computer based simulator to train cognitive surgical skills”

American Urological Association poster presentation San Francisco, CA , 5/04
“How we learn resection skills: analysis of data from the UW TURP Simulator”

University of Washington Deans Faculty Retreat, Semihamoo, WA, 5/04
“The University of Washington Institute for Surgical and Interventional Simulation”

Lecturer, Industrial Engineering 544:  University of Washington, 5/04, 3/05.
“Virtual reality applications in medicine”

UWTV 6/21/2002
“Virtual Reality” web-based education tool

UWTV,  http://www.uwtv.org/programs/displayevent.asp?rid=2020
“Prostate cancer: localized disease”

TURP simulator press features:
University Week,  1/27/2005
University Week Cover article,  10/2004
Northwest Magazine-Seattle Times 4/04
Seattle Post-Intelligencer-10/03

American College of Surgeons Committee on Video-based education, Chicago, hosted speaker, 3/2004. "Cognitive Simulation in surgical education: the ISERT simulator”

Speaker at selected symposiums on the role of virtual reality in surgical education

Sponsored Participant in the Conference on Surgical Errors (COSE) consensus meeting,  Washington DC, March, 2004

Western Ontario University, opening of CSTAR, October, 2003

University of Washington, October 2002

University of Minnesota – keynote speaker, October 2002

Cleveland Clinic Foundation-hosted speaker, May 2002

Moderator/Organizer: a multi-disciplinary symposium on procedural simulation at the University of Washington, November, 2003
“Solutions to training in the face of the 80 hour work week”

Select TURP simulator hands-on demonstrations:
- “Come together Washington”, UW Medicine booth-Seattle, October, 2004.
- Board of Regents-University of Washington.
- American Urological Association, Orlando, May, 2002, Chicago, April, 2003.
- European Association of Urology, Madrid, Spain, 2003
- Multidisciplinary Executive Committee on Simulators for Training, Newport       Beach, January, 2003.

American Foundation of Urological Diseases (AFUD) honors breakfast, Chicago, 2003.
“Virtual Reality applications in Urology” and
“Validation of the Virtual Reality TURP simulator as a Training Tool”

American Urological Association, Chicago, April, 2003.

World Congress of Endourology, Genoa, Italy September 2002.

University of Washington Department of Urology Grandest Rounds, June 2002

“The Virtual TURP: A realistic interactive simulator for the training of transurethral resection of the prostate”. Video presentation

World Congress of Endourology, Genoa, Italy, September, 2002

American Urological Association, Orlando, May, 2002

Western Section of American Urological Association, Anchorage, October, 2001, Accepted for presentation, presented Hawaii, October 2002

“Collaborations between doctors and technologists”. Expert panelist, MMVR January, 2002

“The Virtual TURP: a hands-on virtual/physical hybrid model for training physicians to perform TURP”

Committee on Advanced Surgical Technology, Seattle, October, 2002

ACMI non-commissioned booth presentation AUA Orlando, May, 2002

Medicine Meets Virtual Reality, Newport Beach, January, 2002

Northwest Urological Society, Vancouver,  December, 2001.Winner of Tate Mason Award for best presentation by a resident

Virginia Mason Medical Center Urology Grand Rounds, July 2001

University of Washington Department of Urology Grand Rounds, May 2001.
“The roles of fibroblast growth factors 7 and 10 on proliferation and differentiation in the genitourinary tract”

American Urological Association,  poster session Orlando, May 2002

University of Washington Department of Urology Grand Rounds, May 2001.
“The development of a new tool to facilitate wound healing after posterior urethral trauma: a mouse model.”

University of Washington Department of Urology Grand Rounds, May 2001.
“Minimally invasive approaches to treating BPH.”

University of Washington Department of Urology Grand Rounds, February 2001.
“Virtual reality in surgical education.”

University of Washington Division of Transplant Surgery Grand Rounds, February 2001. “Virtual reality in surgical education: Potential applications in Urology.”

University of Washington Department of Urology Grand Rounds, May 2000, September, 2002

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PUBLICATIONS:

Sweet, R.M., Berkley, J. Chapter: Virtual Reality Simulation for the Textbook of Laparoscopic Urology, Gill et al., publication pending.

Wright, J., Hoffman, H., Sweet, R.M. "Virtual reality as an adjunctive pain control during transurethral microwave thermotherapy”.  Urology, publication pending.

Sweet, R.M. Virtual reality simulation: becoming a reality in urological education. Contemporary Urology, Vol 17, No. 3 2005, pp 21-30.

Sweet, R.M., Kowalewski, T., Oppenheimer, P., Weghorst, S, Satava.  Face, content and construct validity of the University of Washington virtual reality TURP trainer. J. Urol. 172: 1953-57

Sweet, R.M., Oppenheimer, P., Porter, J., Hendrickson, D., Gupta, A., Weghorst, S.  The Simulation of Bleeding in Endoscopic Procedures Using Virtual Reality.  Journal of Endourology, Sep;16(7):451-5.

Oppenheimer, P., Sweet, R.M., Gupta, A., Porter, J., Weghorst, S.   The representation of blood  flow in endourologic surgical simulations.  Stud Health Technol Inform. 2001;81:365-71.

Bagai, S, Rubio E, Cheng J, Sweet R, Thomas R, Fuchs E, Grady R, Mitchell M, Bassuk J. Fibroblast growth factor-10 is a mitogen for urothelial cells.  J Biol Chem. 2002 Jun 28;277(26):23828-37.

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