Who: Dr. Michael Zinner, 70
New role: Founding executive director and CEO of the Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida.
Previous work: Zinner most recently served as clinical director at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center and surgeon-in-chief at Brigham and Women's Hospital, both in Boston. He is also co-founder and co-director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and founder of Harvard University's Center for Surgery and Public Health.
Adding proton therapy: The cancer institute, which is expected to open in late 2016, will feature 305,000 square feet of high-tech clinical space and a 90,000-square-foot research facility that will offer clinical trials. The outpatient facility will be connected to 672-bed Baptist Hospital and will be the first facility in South Florida to offer proton therapy, touted as offering more precise treatment with fewer side effects.
Advances in cancer care: “We've made tremendous progress. Liquid tumors were death sentences 20 years ago, but patients are living longer now. There are also more effective bone marrow transplants. But there's still much more to be done.”
