Miami Cancer Institute Promotes Renowned Cancer Experts
MIAMI ― June 24, 2019 ― With the growth of Baptist Health South Florida’s Miami Cancer Institute, two renowned physicians critical to its formation and expansion have been promoted.
Medical oncologist Leonard Kalman, M.D., has been promoted to executive deputy director and chief medical officer. A member of the Baptist Health medical staff since 1982, Dr. Kalman has been instrumental in the vision and mission of Miami Cancer Institute, being named to its executive leadership team prior to its opening in 2017. He has been responsible for recruiting and developing physicians and staff and helping define the Institute’s clinical components. A graduate of Duke University School of Medicine, Dr. Kalman completed internships at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Massachusetts General and a residency at Drexel University College of Medicine. Prior to coming to Baptist Health, he completed an oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. In Miami, he joined what would become Advanced Medical Specialties (AMS), a diversified oncology practice in Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties. He was appointed Chairman of the practice’s Board of Managers, leading AMS’ strategic planning, quality and growth initiatives. The group became the founding oncologists of Miami Cancer Institute.
“Dr. Kalman has played a vital role in the development of Miami Cancer Institute, ensuring that patient needs were at the center of the facility’s design and helping plan the services that would be offered,” said Michael J. Zinner, M.D., CEO and executive medical director of the Institute. “He has brought in preeminent physicians from the nation’s top cancer centers to lead our sophisticated programs and further develop innovative treatments for patients.”
An internationally renowned expert in the application of both autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplantation in the treatment of leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, multiple myeloma and other lymphoproliferative diseases, Guenther Koehne, M.D., Ph.D., has been named deputy director and chief of Stem Cell Transplantation, Hematologic Oncology and Benign Hematology. Dr. Koehne joined Miami Cancer Institute in 2017 from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he was one of the leading physicians in the adult bone marrow transplantation service. He has led the development and growth of the Institute’s outpatient and inpatient blood and bone marrow transplant program and is involved in numerous clinical trials. A physician-scientist, Dr. Koehne received his medical degree and Ph.D. from Medical University of Hamburg, Germany, where he also trained as a resident in internal medicine. He completed an additional internal medicine residency at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. His medical oncology/hematology fellowship training took place at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and he completed an additional research fellowship in the Immunology Program at the Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation Service, where he also served as a research associate.
“Dr. Koehne’s role in discovering new and improved methods of treating blood cancers and in employing immunotherapeutic techniques to fight cancer has made it possible for patients to receive the most advanced care available,” said Dr. Zinner. “He will continue to grow our programs so that patients from South Florida never have to leave the region for the best care.”
About Miami Cancer Institute
Miami Cancer Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida, is a next-generation cancer treatment destination known for its leading clinical care and research, compassionate patient experience and state-of-the-art technology – including the first proton therapy center in South Florida, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the only radiation oncology program in the world with each of the latest radiation therapies in one place. The Institute offers an impressive roster of established community oncologists and renowned cancer experts, clinical researchers and genomic scientists recruited from the nation’s top cancer centers. As Florida’s only member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Alliance, Miami Cancer Institute is part of a deep and functional collaboration that affords patients access to innovative treatments right here at home and ensures that the standards of care developed by our multidisciplinary disease management teams match those at MSK. Heralded nationally as one of the “hybrid” cancer centers of the future, Miami Cancer Institute combines high-quality community-based cancer care with the best of an academic cancer center, including innovative clinical trials tied to research and genomics and disease-specific surgeons, medical oncologists and radiation oncologists who are experts in their fields. For more information, visit MiamiCancerInstitute.com.
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