Specialties
David O. Francis, MD, MS
Associate Professor
- Associate Residency Program Director – Research
- Section of Laryngology
- Director of Outcomes Research
- Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery
- University Hospital Clinic: 608-263-6190
600 Highland Avenue
Madison, WI 53792-0001
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.
Dr. 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
Dr. Francis directs the Otolaryngology Outcomes Research group and is a member of the Wisconsin Surgical Outcomes Research Program (WiSOR), and is nationally recognized as a leader in Health Services Research. His research focuses on a patient-centered approach to personalizing and improving the care of patients with ear, nose, and throat disorders. His research has been funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
His primary areas of study involve 1) understanding reasons surrounding geographic variations in care, 2) promoting prevention of iatrogenic vocal fold paralysis, 3) understanding the patient experience living with unilateral vocal fold paralysis, 4) development of new measurement tools to measure disability related to unilateral vocal fold paralysis, and 5) developing novel treatments and comparing their effectiveness in improving the care of patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis. His research team consists of experts in health policy, population health, health service research, epidemiology, clinical trials, measurement theory, and scientists with expertise in peripheral nerve regeneration.
Dr. Francis was recently awarded a $2.4 million grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders for a vocal fold paralysis study. Read more here.
Recent Publications
Differential Ultrasound Rates Mirror Sex Disparities in Thyroid Cancer.
Fernandes-Taylor S, Bowles EJA, Venkatesh M, Doud R, Krebsbach C, Arroyo N, Hanlon B, Chen AY, Davies L, Francis DO
Thyroid 2024 Nov 28;
[PubMed ID: 39607408]Temporal Trends in Thyroid Nodule Size on Ultrasonography: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Mann H, Arroyo N, Hsiao V, Tessler F, Gettle LM, Zhang Y, Adil A, Hitchcock M, Massoud E, Jensen C, Alagoz O, Davies L, Fernandes-Taylor S, Francis DO
JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2024 Oct 24;
[PubMed ID: 39446361]Surgical Management of Buckled Thyroid Cartilage in the Setting of Dysphonia.
Ring S, Knewitz A, Bowen AJ, Francis DO
Laryngoscope 2024 Oct 15;
[PubMed ID: 39404082]Thyroid Cancer Incidence During 2020 to 2021 COVID-19 Variant Waves.
Bell R, Weinberger DM, Venkatesh M, Fernandes-Taylor S, Francis DO, Davies L
JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2024 Oct 10; 150(11): 969-77
[PubMed ID: 39388144]Impact of Obesity on Timing of Tracheotomy: A Multi-institutional Retrospective Study.
Yousef A, Soliman SI, Solomon I, Panuganti BA, Francis DO, Pang J, Klebaner D, Asturias A, Alattar A, Wood S, Terry M, Bryson PC, Tipton CB, Zhao EE, O'Rourke A, Santa Maria C, Grimm DR, Sung CK, Lao WP, Thompson JM, Crawley BK, Rosen S, Berezovsky A, Kupfer R, Hennesy TB, Clary M, Joseph IT, Sarhadi K, Kuhn M, Abdel-Aty Y, Kennedy MM, Lott DG, Weissbrod PA
Laryngoscope 2024 Nov; 134(11): 4674-4681
[PubMed ID: 38895915]