Erik Eduardo Folch Viadero, MD

Erik Folch, MD, is a board-certified interventional pulmonologist and pulmonary critical care medicine physician with Keck Medicine of USC. He specializes in treating diseases of the airways, lungs and pleura.

Dr. Folch is dedicated to providing his patients with detailed information about their diagnoses and treatment to help them make the best individualized treatment decisions for their condition, whether it’s primary lung cancer or cancer that has metastasized to the lung. Dr. Folch helped to pioneer the advent of robotic bronchoscopy by leading as one of the first three physicians globally to use navigational robotics in peripheral lung lesion biopsy and participated in the clinical trial that led to FDA approval. His current, future-focused scientific interest is in lung ablation to move the field of interventional pulmonology from diagnosis forward to treatment.

He received his medical degree from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and did his medical residency at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, where he served as chief resident. He then completed his fellowship in pulmonary critical care and interventional pulmonology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. For the past 10 years, Dr. Folch served as faculty and program director for the interventional pulmonary program at Massachusetts General Hospital.

At the Keck School of Medicine of USC, Dr. Folch serves as associate professor of clinical medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. His research interests include robotic bronchoscopy, ablation of lung tumors and pleural diseases, and esophageal approaches to lung biopsy.

In his free time, Dr. Folch likes to spend time with his daughter, as well as going hydrofoiling at the beach.