Professor Martin Birchall MD FRCS FMedSci DSc is a professor of laryngology at UCL and a consultant in ENT surgery at the Royal National Ear Nose and Throat and Eastman Dental Hospital.

He is a world-leading academic otolaryngologist as measured by the impact of his research, teaching and papers.
A specialist in disorders of voice, swallowing and breathing, he has pioneered the use of transplantation, tissue engineering and soft robotics in surgery.

Clinically, he has a particular interest in voice, swallowing and airway disorders such as stenosis, cough and neck lumps. He is part of multidisciplinary voice, reflux, airway and head and neck cancer teams. He treats patients with vocal cord weakness (‘palsy’), and pioneered new means of restoring function for them using the drive from unaffected nerves (laryngeal reinnervation).

He introduced new procedures, including transnasal oesophagoscopy to the UK, and pioneered awake laser procedures and transcutaneous vocal cord injection, to treat throat and voice problems.

He has a large research group concentrating on the use of innovative technology to manage disorders of the airways, especially the use of biomaterials, cells and soft robotics.

In 2008, he co-led the team which performed the world’s first stem cell based organ transplant, and with Prof Elliott at Great Ormond St, co-led the team which performed the same feat in a child in 2010. In 2010, he was also part of the team which performed the world’s second (and first functionally reinnervated) laryngeal transplant at UC Davis, California. He was Morgan Stanley Briton of the Year (Science and Technology), 2008, and is a frequent guest speaker at major international conferences.

He has published in the Lancet, Nature and the BMJ. With Mr Guri Sandhu and Prof David Howard, he founded the British Laryngological Association in 2011, and runs a successful bi-annual conference ‘Cutting Edge Laryngology’.

He was the first otolaryngologist to be elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2010, and was awarded NIHR Senior Investigator status in 2020. He is a patron of the National Association of Laryngectomee Clubs and Trustee of the Throat Cancer Foundation.

He is passionate about involving patients and publics in medical science, including the present innovative arts-science initiative “A Sound Voice”.

He is a highly experienced medicolegal Expert Witness, with almost 30 years of reporting. He has given evidence in Court on several occasions and completed regular training courses. He mentors ENT consultants starting out in medicolegal practice. His Claimant: Defendant: Joint reporting ratio is 60:49:1.