David O. Francis
Credentials: MD, MS
Position title: Vice Chair for Academic Affairs; Associate Professor; Associate Residency Program Director
Email: dofrancis@wisc.edu
- Division of Laryngology
- Director of Outcomes Research
Honors
Avant-Garde Health ENT Surgery Research All-Stars (2024)
Clinical Specialties
Dr. Francis is certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology and has high-level specialty training in the care of voice, airway, and swallowing disorders. He has extensive experience with both the medical and surgical care of professional voice users, management of neurological disorders of the voice including vocal fold paralysis and laryngeal dystonias (e.g., spasmodic dysphonia, laryngeal tremor). He has expertise in managing infectious diseases of the larynx, airway stenosis, and dysphagia. He has a patient-centric approach to caring for patients and strongly believes that listening to the patient is central to personalized care and that one size does not fit all when managing voice, swallowing, and airway disorders. He also recognizes that the care of voice, swallowing, and breathing disorders requires a multidisciplinary approach that includes close collaborations with speech-language pathology, pulmonary, gastroenterology, allergy, thoracic surgery, and neurology among others.
Francis provides a wide range of services including airway dilation, airway reconstruction, arytenoid adduction, cricopharyngeal myotomy, endoscopic partial laryngectomy, laryngeal papilloma laser treatment, laser procedures, laryngoplasty/thyroplasty, microflap excision of vocal fold lesions, microlaryngoscopy, thyroidectomy, transnasal esophagoscopy (TNE), vocal fold injection, Zenker’s diverticulectomy.
Research Interests
Francis’s research investigates a patient-centered approach to personalizing and improving the care of patients with ear, nose, and throat disorders. He primarily focuses on understanding geographic variations in care, promoting the prevention of iatrogenic vocal fold paralysis, and understanding the experience of patients living with unilateral vocal fold paralysis. He also studies the development of new tools to measure disability related to unilateral vocal fold paralysis, as well as the comparative effectiveness of new treatments for this condition. His current research portfolio includes funded research in vocal fold paralysis outcomes, post-thyroidectomy voice and swallowing dysfunction, idiopathic subglottic stenosis, psychometrics, and dissemination and implementation science.
Francis directs the Otolaryngology Outcomes Research group and is a member of the Wisconsin Surgical Outcomes Research program (WiSOR). He is nationally recognized as a leader in health services research. His research has been funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Francis was awarded a $2.4 million grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders for a vocal fold paralysis study.
Vocal Cord Paralysis Experience
Publications