Associate Professor
Harvard University School of Medicine
Ramon Franco Jr, MD is a Board-Certified Otolaryngologist based at Mass Eye and Ear and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. A graduate of Penn State University School of Medicine, he completed his residency at SUNY Downstate followed by a fellowship in Laryngology and Professional Voice at Mass Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School. He has been an active member of the Otolaryngology department at Harvard for the past 21 years, serving as the Medical Director for the Voice and Speech Lab and the Laryngology Fellowship Program Director. He is the immediate past Director of the Division of Laryngology. He is the Founder and Director of the Center for Upper Airway Stenosis at Mass Eye & Ear/Harvard. As a dedicated educator he can be found at many local, national and international conferences, as an organizer or invited lecturer and participates in many “mission” trips to teach and operate with local faculty.
His clinical interests include the treatment of airway stenosis, voice disorders, treatment of the professional voice and laryngeal cancer. Over his career he has helped to move procedures from the operating room to the clinic setting where they can decrease morbidity. These include the pioneering use of angiolytic lasers for the treatment of leukoplakia and papillomatosis, ALA photodynamic therapy for recurrent leukoplakia, photochemical tissue bonding to approximate tissue without sutures and creating the SILSI technique to allow outpatient treatment of airway stenosis. His main research interest is the understanding of how SILSI modifies airway stenosis, both molecularly and clinically.