Dr. Mike Fumo, 34

By Lorna Collier

Dr. Mike Fumo — like most 34-year-old guys — enjoys playing with high-tech gadgets. But that’s not the reason he loves performing urologic surgery using a $1.8 million robot.

“Patients are able to have much better outcomes and they recuperate faster,” said Fumo, a board-certified urologic surgeon at Rockford Urologic Associates who helped bring the “da Vinci” robotic surgical system to life in Rockford 18 months ago.

Since September 2007, Fumo has performed 160 prostatectomies at Rockford Memorial Hospital using the da Vinci robot. With this system, patients have smaller incisions, less blood loss, less post-operative pain and shorter hospital stays.

Before Fumo came to Rockford, patients who wanted da Vinci procedures had to travel to Madison or Chicago. Fumo trained on the system at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and brought his expertise with it to Rockford two years ago, enabling Rockford Memorial Hospital to begin offering the service.

Fumo, a Chicago native, lives with his wife and three children in Rockford. He also teaches at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford, researches and writes scientific papers, and coaches youth basketball for the YMCA.

Rockford now has a cutting-edge program in urology, Fumo said, but needs word-of-mouth to spread the message that people throughout northern Illinois don’t necessarily need to go to Madison, Chicago, Iowa City, or Mayo Clinic.

“I want Rockford to be where people come to because of what we can offer.”