Israel Franco

Israel Franco, MD is a Pediatric urologist with 30 years experience in the field and has been listed in Castle Connolly’s top doctors. He directs the Yale/New Haven Children’s Bladder and Continence Program. Dr. Franco received his medical degree from Albert Einstein College and is fellowship trained at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, now the Lurie Children’s Hospital. Dr Franco has been an early innovator in laparoscopic surgery and neurourology in pediatric urology. Dr Franco is the treasurer and board member of the International Children’s Continence Society, which plays a vital role in the education of physicians, nurses and physiotherapist in the care of children’s urinary and bowel continence issues. Dr Franco was one of the earliest practitioners of biofeedback therapy in the in the United States and established the paradigm of using nurse practitioners and other physician extenders to help manage the children with urinary incontinence and dysfunctional voiding allowing for extended contact time with caretakers.

Dr. Franco has been a visiting professor at several prestigious urology programs throughout the country. He has also been an invited professor in Italy, Brazil, China, South Korea, Venezuela, Ecuador and Columbia. Dr Franco has published over 90 articles in peer reviewed journals and has contributed 19 chapters for textbooks with the most recent contributions to Chancellor and Diokno’s textbook on Underactive Bladder in Children and Swaiman’s Neurology: Practices and Principles. He is the lead editor and contributor to a multidisciplinary textbook on Pediatric Urinary Incontinence published by Blackwell Publishing, which was released October 2015.

Since Dr. Franco’s publication on the Management and Treatment of Overactive in Bladder in Children in 2007 in Journal of Urology he has driven the pediatric community to look at CNS mechanisms as the cause of most incontinence and dysfunctional voiding issues in children. Since that time a more concerted effort to explore these mechanisms has continued to confirm a central role for many children with refractory incontinence.Dr. Franco is involved in clinical research to elucidate the mechanisms of incontinence in children and to find methods to predict incontinence episodes in children with new non invasive technologies.

Dr. Franco has been involved in clinical trials that have lead to the approval of the only two anticholinergic medications as well as Botulimun toxin A for use in children.

Dr Franco has several patents in the field of continence devices and urodynamic software. Research in these fields is his main interest. He has developed a bedwetting Alarm which is powered by artificial intelligence that wakes patients up prior to having an accident. He is working on similar technology to help patients with neurologic problems be continent utilizing the same technology. Other studies performed at Yale University have shown the mechanism of how electrical stimulation produces changes in portions of the the brain that are associated with the control of urination, making this technique useful for treating bladder overactivity. Research continues in ways to automate the reading of urodynamic and uroflowmetry studies utilizing frequency analysis and machine learning.

Always an early innovator and on the cutting edge of technology he brings a proven track record of successful innovative therapies to children with neurogenic bladder problems as well as children with non neurogenic bladder and continence issues.