Dr. Ryan graduated from Archmere Academy and Boston College before earning his medical degree from The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, where he was inducted into Sigma Sigma Pi, the National Osteopathic Medical Student Honor Society. He completed his internal medicine training at Bryn Mawr Hospital and his dermatology residency at Hahnemann University Hospital, serving as chief resident from 1984 to 1985. In 1984, he was awarded the Residents Forum First Prize at the Pennsylvania Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting.