Southern Arizona VA Health Care System; University of Arizona
3601 S. 6th Avenue, Surgical Care Line 2-112
Tucson AZUSA
85723
Biographical Sketch: Dr. Robert Krouse is a Surgical Oncologist with the Southern Arizona Veterans Affairs Health Care System and Professor of Surgery with the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Dr. Krouse’s interest in issues for patients with advanced cancer began as an Immunotherapy Fellow at the National Cancer Institute. This interest broadened as a Surgical Oncology Fellow at the City of Hope National Medical Center, where he was mentored in techniques related to Surgical Oncology and Quality of Life research. Dr. Krouse is a Comprehensive Member of the Arizona Cancer Center, and Director of Surgical Research at the Tucson VA. Dr. Krouse serves on the Executive Committee of the American College of Surgeons Surgical Palliative Care Task Force, whose purpose is to help introduce the precepts and techniques of palliative care to surgical practice and education in the United States and Canada. He is also the Co-Chair of the Southwestern Oncology Group (SWOG) Cancer Survivorship Committee, and is the Co-Leader of the developing Biobehavioral and Social Sciences Research Program at the Arizona Cancer Center.
Dr. Krouse participates in many research projects, predominantly related to his major interests in gastrointestinal cancers, skin cancers, quality of life, and end of life care. He was the Principal Investigator (PI) of a Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Award (IIR 02-221) related to the quality of life for veterans with intestinal stomas, and is PI of an ongoing NCI R01 (CA106912) quality of life study for long-term cancer survivors with intestinal stomas in a general population setting. He is also PI of a pilot intervention study (R21 CA133337) for new ostomates to test the feasibility, efficacy, and comprehensibility of a self-management care curriculum based on the Chronic Care Model. He is recognized internationally as an expert in the palliative surgical treatment of patients with advanced cancer. This notably includes invasive procedures for symptom control. In 2004 Dr. Krouse organized and was moderator for an international conference on malignant bowel obstruction (R13 CA110771), with the goal of advancing palliative care research through development of a trial protocol using malignant bowel obstruction as a model. Potential research projects in the future are aimed at developing and testing interventions for ostomy patients, and several quality of life projects related to palliative surgery and malignant bowel obstruction.