Dr. Ricardo Franco is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and a board-certified physician in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. While at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Dr. Franco coordinated viral hepatitis care at the UAB CFAR (1917 Clinic) and Division of Infectious Diseases. His interest focuses on hepatitis C elimination. At the community level, he co-founded ACTIVE-C (Alabama Coalition for Testing, Interventions and Engagement in Hepatitis C Care), a statewide collaboration between UAB, community clinics and health departments to increase primary care capacity to test and cure HCV in rural settings. He has received research support from industry (especially FOCUS program and Gilead Foundation), CDC, state health departments, and the NIH, and this work is featured in 40 publications. Back at the University of Miami (where he trained for residency), Dr. Franco brings the same desire to make hepatitis C elimination a reality in Miami-Dade and South Florida. He provides clinical services to the IDEA Exchange in the interface of hepatitis C, HIV and substance use disorder, clinical research to Schiff Center for Liver Diseases, as well as general infectious diseases to UHealth system at large.
