Matthew T. Sweney, MD, MS

Languages Spoken: English

Dr. Sweney is a pediatric neurologist and epileptologist who focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of drug-resistant pediatric epilepsy. He is Medical Director of the Comprehensive Pediatric Epilepsy Program at Primary Children’s Hospital. He is board certified in General Pediatrics, Neurology, Epilepsy, and Clinical Neurophysiology. He participates in all aspects of pediatric epilepsy care, including medication management, non-medication alternatives such as ketogenic diet and vagal nerve stimulation, as well as palliative and curative epilepsy surgery. He remains active in ongoing studies into new potential anti-seizure medications and is committed to providing advanced epilepsy care to children of the intermountain region.

Dr. Sweney is the Medical Director of the Comprehensive Pediatric Epilepsy Program at Primary Children’s Hospital, the only level 4 pediatric epilepsy center accredited by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers in the Intermountain Region. He is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at the University of Utah. His main clinical interests include pediatric epilepsy and EEG, as well as intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM).

Dr. Sweney’s clinical expertise is focused primarily on care for children with drug-resistant epilepsy. During his tenure as Medical Director, the epilepsy program at Primary Children’s Hospital has continued to expand its services, adding subtraction ictal single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) coregistered to MRI (SISCOM) and functional MRI to its existing diagnostic services. Additionally, the epilepsy program now offers minimally invasive surgical options via MRI-guided laser ablation for cases of refractory focal epilepsy.

Dr. Sweney is particularly interested in ongoing clinical trials into new ant-epileptic medications, the utility of responsive neuromodulation in pediatric epilepsy, as well the role of the mobile platform interface in management of chronic epilepsy. Additionally, he continues to remain actively involved in research related to Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC), a rare neurologic disorder of childhood recently attributed to mutations in the ATP1A3 gene. He currently serves as the Chair of the Medical Advisory Board for the AHC Foundation of North America.