About
Biography
Dr. Robert Spence is a board-certified emergency medicine physician with over two decades of clinical experience across high-volume trauma centers, critical access hospitals, and military medical facilities. He currently practices in Las Vegas, NV, where he also serves as academic faculty for the Valley Health System Emergency Medicine Residency.
Before entering medicine, Dr. Spence built a career in engineering and defense. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, where he specialized in control systems and robotic motion planning. He served as an aerospace engineer with the National Reconnaissance Office, a military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, and a robotics researcher supporting the Army Construction Engineering Research Lab.
Dr. Spence is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force with 20 years of combined Army and Air Force service spanning military medicine, aerospace operations, flight surgery, aeromedical evacuation, and space intelligence. He is a graduate of the Gorgas School of Tropical Medicine and has provided humanitarian medical care internationally, from the Mekong Delta of Vietnam to remote villages in Mozambique, Malawi, and Swaziland.
With this unique combination of frontline emergency medicine, engineering expertise, and military service, Dr. Spence founded EmergDoc to bridge artificial intelligence and emergency medicine — building tools informed by real clinical need and grounded in technical rigor.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
Emergency Medicine Residency
Wright State University School of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)
University of Missouri School of Medicine
Master of Science, Electrical Engineering
University of Illinois — Control Systems & Robotic Motion Planning
Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology — Magna Cum Laude, Distinguished Military Graduate
Professional Experience
Emergency Physician & Academic Faculty
Envision Physician Services / Valley Health System EM Residency, Las Vegas, NV
- Practicing across 6 hospitals and 5 free-standing EDs in the Las Vegas area
- Academic faculty for the Valley Health System Emergency Medicine Residency
Emergency Physician
Fremont Emergency Services (now TeamHealth), Las Vegas, NV
- Staffing Sunrise Hospital (Level II trauma center, 100,000 patients/year), Mountainview, and Southern Hills
Emergency Physician & Flight Surgeon
U.S. Air Force & civilian hospitals (AK, MO, ID, WA)
- Served at Elmendorf AFB (Anchorage), Scott AFB (IL), and multiple civilian EDs
- SSM DePaul Health Center: Level II trauma, 50,000 patients/year (3rd busiest in St. Louis)
Engineering & Intelligence Career
U.S. Army & National Reconnaissance Office
- Aerospace Engineer, National Reconnaissance Office
- Military Intelligence Officer, U.S. Army (Airborne qualified)
- Robotics Researcher, U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Lab
- Control Systems Engineer
Military & Aerospace
Retired Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Air Force
Combined U.S. Air Force and Army service in military medicine, aerospace operations, and tactical/space intelligence
- USAF Flight Surgeon — 100+ hours aeromedical evacuation on C-130, C-17, KC-135
- USAF Space Operations — Awarded Basic Space Operations Badge
- Medical Director, Scott AFB Aeromedical Staging Facility
- Theater Validating Flight Surgeon, USTRANSCOM
- U.S. Army Paratrooper (Airborne School, 1993)
- Graduate: Gorgas School of Tropical Medicine (Peru), USAF Global Medicine, Critical Care Air Transport, Aerospace Medicine Primary
Certifications & Fellowships
Board Certified in Emergency Medicine
American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM)
Fellow, American College of Emergency Physicians (FACEP)
Fellow, American Academy of Emergency Medicine (FAAEM)
Diplomate, Gorgas School of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene
Instructor & Provider: ACLS, ATLS, PALS
ACLS & PALS Instructor since 2000
Emergency Ultrasound
Advanced Emergency Ultrasound, Ultrasound Guided Vascular Access, Ultrasound Guided Regional Anesthesia
Publications
- “An Integrated Architecture for Robot Motion Planning and Control in the Presence of Obstacles with Unknown Trajectories,” IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, January 1995
- “Dealing with Unexpected Moving Obstacles by Integrating Potential Field Planning with Inverse Dynamics Control,” IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, July 1992
- “Bedside Teaching using Palmtop Computers in the Emergency Department: A New Paradigm,” Poster Presentation, Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Annual Meeting, May 2002