Dr. Ahmad S. Al

An internationally known leader in hematology, A. Samer Al-Homsi, MD, MBA, is system chief of blood and marrow transplant and cellular therapy at the Northwell Health Cancer Institute, where he also serves as director of faculty and academic affairs in medical oncology.

In his position, Dr. Al-Homsi treats patients in need of blood and marrow transplantation for blood cancers and other blood conditions. Dr. Al-Homsi attended medical school at Damascus University Faculty of Medicine, did his residency at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Illinois, and completed a fellowship at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, MA. He also received training and practiced in France. He came to Northwell from the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health, where he was executive director of transplantation and cellular therapy. His research efforts throughout his career have focused on innovations that lead to better patient care in blood and marrow transplantation.

The poet Kahlil Gibran wrote that work is love made visible, and I believe medicine is love made visible, says Dr. Al-Homsi. Every patient has unique needs, based not just on their specific condition, but also on their cultural background, family situation, and the impact of their disease. We're fortunate at Northwell to have care delivered by a large team that's there to address all those aspects.

Dr. Al-Homsi is looking forward to advancing more clinical research at Northwell's Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. That will likely facilitate the development of more therapies that can treat patients, he says, and in a way that's safer and more effective.

Dr. Al-Homsi doesn't just focus on the physical effects of conditions like leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma with decades of patient care, he also knows the tremendous value of a deeper conversation about how cancer is affecting patients mental health and everyday function. His priority is to learn about the patient first and the disease second.

That perspective on patient advocacy and approaching each interaction with compassion and love is the same now as it was when he first entered medical school, he recalls. I wanted my life to matter, and to make a difference, he says. I'm not trying to change the world, but I can change patients' lives. I can change their world, and that's incredibly rewarding and meaningful.

Dr. Al is rated as an Advanced provider by MediFind in Bone Marrow Transplant. His top areas of expertise are Graft Versus Host Disease (GvHD), Multiple Myeloma, Adult T-Cell Leukemia, Chronic T-Cell Leukemia (CTCL), and Bone Marrow Transplant.

His clinical research consists of co-authoring 32 peer reviewed articles and participating in 2 clinical trials. MediFind looks at clinical research from the past 15 years. In particular, he has co-authored 7 articles and participated in 2 clinical trials in the study of Bone Marrow Transplant.