Baptist Health Herbert Wertheim Cancer Institute is pleased to welcome Michael F. Walsh, M.D., a board-certified medical geneticist specializing in hereditary cancer predisposition. Dr. Walsh will serve as deputy director of Baptist Health Cancer Care and chief of the Herbert Wertheim Center for Cancer Prevention.

"We are pleased to welcome Dr. Walsh to our multidisciplinary team of cancer specialists dedicated to providing our patients and their families with the highest quality care," said Leonard Kalman, M.D., interim system chief executive, Baptist Health Cancer Care, and interim executive medical director, Herbert Wertheim Cancer Institute. "His expertise in cancer genetics, prevention and early detection will further strengthen our ability to identify cancer risk and translate genomic insights into personalized care."

Before joining Baptist Health, Dr. Walsh was medical director of global development and clinical sciences in hematology at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, where his work included clinical trials focused on cancer-associated thrombosis. Previously, he spent nearly a decade at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), where he advanced from assistant member to associate member working on cancer prevention in adults and children. He also served as an associate professor at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) and associate program director of the MSKCC/WCMC Medical Genetics Fellowship Program.

Dr. Walsh earned his medical degree at University College Dublin. He completed pediatric and medical genetics training at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and a pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He is certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics, and the American Board of Pediatrics.

His clinical and research interests focus on hereditary cancer predisposition in children and adults, including identifying inherited and acquired genetic changes that drive cancer risk and developing evidence-based approaches to screening, surveillance, prevention and early detection. Dr. Walsh has contributed to national and international cancer genetics efforts through the American Association for Cancer Research, Clinical Genome Resource and the World Health Organization, and has authored or co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Walsh takes an integrative approach to cancer prevention and care. "Understanding a patient's inherited and acquired genetic changes, alongside environmental exposures and family history, gives us the clearest picture of cancer risk," he said. "When an inherited risk is identified, it is also an opportunity to help protect the patient's relatives."

Dr. Walsh is fluent in English and Spanish.