Firas El Chaer MD, MSHCM

Dr. Firas El Chaer, M.D., MSHCM, is a board-certified hematologist-oncologist and the chief of Leukemia and medical director of Infusion Services at Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute. He specializes in the treatment of leukemia, with a primary focus on acute myeloid leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, and chronic myeloid leukemia. His expertise also extends to myeloproliferative neoplasms (primary myelofibrosis, essential thrombocytosis, and polycythemia vera), clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential, as well as bone marrow failure disorders, including myelodysplastic syndromes and aplastic anemia.

Dr. El Chaer utilizes personalized, targeted therapies to enhance treatment effectiveness and improve patient responses. Additionally, he has a keen interest in measurable residual disease detection and monitoring, which can improve patients’ long-term outcomes and survival rates by catching early signs of relapse so treatments can be adjusted accordingly. Before joining Baptist Health, Dr. El Chaer was an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology-Oncology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He also served as medical director of the Cancer Service Line – Infusion Centers and medical director of the Chronic and Acute Leukemia Research Team at the University of Virginia Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. El Chaer earned his medical degree at the University of Balamand in Beirut, Lebanon. He served as chief resident during an internal medicine residency at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Englewood, N.J. He then completed a fellowship in infectious diseases for immunocompromised cancer patients at the combined program of Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He also completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology with a focus on blood disorders and a built-in fellowship in stem cell transplantation at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, where he served as chief fellow. He is board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine, infectious diseases, hematology, and medical oncology. Dr. El Chaer is fluent in English, French, and Arabic.