Raymond L Chai, MD

Dr. Raymond Chai, MD, FACS is a board certified head and neck surgical oncologist. A graduate of Johns Hopkins and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, he completed his residency in otolaryngology — head and neck surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He then completed a fellowship in Advanced Head and Neck Surgical Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he trained with the inventors of transoral robotic surgery (TORS).

An Associate Professor of Otolaryngology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Dr. Chai serves as the Director of Head and Neck Robotic Surgery. In addition, he is the Residency Site Director for Otolaryngology at Mount Sinai West and the Co-Director of the Head and Neck Surgical Oncology fellowship program.  Dr. Chai’s surgical practice focuses on benign and malignant tumors of the head and neck. He has particular expertise in transoral robotic surgery for oropharynx cancer, recurrent/advanced thyroid cancer, and surgical management of parathyroid disorders.

Dr. Chai has published extensively in the literature and presents his work both nationally and internationally.  Dr. Chai is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and is a member of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, the American Thyroid Association, the American Head and Neck Society, and the New York Head and Neck Society.  He holds national leadership positions within multiple societies in the field, including serving on the AHNS Publications and Awards Committee and the AAO-HNSF Endocrine Committee.  Dr. Chai is the current Associate Editor for endocrine surgery for Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, the most widely circulated journal in the specialty.  He is also the principal investigator of the SIRS 2.0 trial (NCT05419089), a phase II clinical trial evaluating the utility of circulating tumor DNA after sugery for HPV-related oropharyngeal carcinoma to either de-intensify or eliminate adjuvant therapy.  

Dr. Chai is heavily involved in the training of the next generation of otolaryngologists and head and neck surgeons, from both a clinical and a research perspective.  He currently chairs the system-wide Resident Research Committee and has twice won the faculty teaching award. 

Read more about the SIRS 2.0 robotic sugery trial here: https://stage-reports.mountsinai.org/article/ent2023-02-reducing-the-need-for-adjuvant-chemoradiotherapy-among-patients

Read Dr. Chai's blog about HPV-related throat cancer and robotic surgery: http://www.healthbytesnyc.com/cancer/questions-to-ask-your-doctor-about-hpv-related-oral-cancer-2/.