Internationally acclaimed plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Papay is 2025 Commencement speaker
Frank A. Papay, M.D. (’84), who served as a leader of the Cleveland Clinic surgical team that performed America’s first total face transplant, has been named as the 2025 Commencement speaker for his alma mater, NEOMED.
Dr. Papay was recently appointed as chief clinical business development officer of the Cleveland Clinic Enterprise. He holds the Violette Magyar Chair of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and section head of Craniofacial Surgery. Dr. Papay is currently serving as the president of the American Society of Maxillofacial Surgeons, board director of the American Board of Plastic Surgeons and is traveling visiting professor of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons. He was recognized with the AAPS Research Achievement Award for Innovation.
He has published over 260 publications including co-authoring two books, Reconstructive Allotransplantation and Artificial Intelligent Strategies in Healthcare. He is currently co-editing Voices of Innovation-Fulfilling the Promise of AI in Healthcare and Virtual Surgical Planning in Plastic Surgery.
Dr. Papay was the lead surgeon on America's first successful face transplantation and has led two additional face transplantations at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Papay has dozens of honors including an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Ohio University, the Sones Centennial Innovation award (highest honor bestowed at the Cleveland Clinic), Elected Fellow in the National Academy of Inventors, the WebMD Hero Award in Science, The Cleveland Clinic's George Crile Founders traveling fellowship award, the NEOMED Distinguished Alumni Award, and the honorary ASMS/ASPS Converse Lecture, among others.
Dr. Papay's background encompasses a Case Western Reserve University master's degree in biomedical engineering, working at NASA in Earth applications. After finishing medical school at NEOMED, he became double boarded in Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, followed by Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, a traveling fellowship in maxillofacial surgery in Switzerland then a craniofacial fellowship at the University of Utah. Dr. Papay holds over 45 patents (and counting) and has co-founded three Cleveland Clinic spin-off companies, with interest in neuromodulation for obstructive sleep apnea, cluster migraine headaches, and other drug-delivery medical devices and implants. Dr. Papay's current interest involves the creation of artificial intelligence programs for efficient healthcare operations, AI + Cognitive Behavioral Therapy control of chronic disease conditions and surgical navigation with wearable microscopes, augmented reality and fluorescence guided surgery. He is the co-founder of the "BrainX community," a community of over 4,000 world-wide physicians and computer scientists contributing to open-source sharing of data, and the creation of a free AI healthcare learning platform.
Dr. Papay will also receive an honorary degree during NEOMED’s Commencement on May 3, 2025, at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron.