Muhamed Baljević
Dr. Baljevic graduated from Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar of Cornell University in 2010 with Honors in Research. Subsequently, he pursued his internship and residency training at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, NY, from where he moved on to complete subspecialty training in Hematology and Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. As a fellow in training, he was recognized with the receipt of the prestigious Celgene Future Leaders Award for Clinical Research in Hematology award and was further invited to present his investigator-initiated work at the 2015 ASCO/AACR Workshop on Methods in Clinical Cancer Research.
Dr. Baljevic began his independent faculty career as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) from 2016-2021, where he practiced as a myeloma specialist, and cellular therapist. He helped introduce the institutional protocol for bloodless autologous stem cell transplantation for Jehovah’s Witnesses and supervised the very first delivery of multiple myeloma (MM) CAR T-cell therapy, both the first for the Nebraska state and the region. He further designed and led the first investigator-initiated studies in MM in both non-transplant as well as ASCT arena. He served at UNMC as the member of the Internal Medicine Research Council Committee, Patient Steering Review Committee, and Data Safety Monitoring Committee, and as notable clinician and researcher in the field of plasma cell malignancies, he was elected a representative of Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center on the national comprehensive cancer network (NCCN) guidelines for MM, systemic light-chain amyloidosis (SLCA) and Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM).
Dr. Baljevic was subsequently recruited in 2021 as an Associate Professor of Medicine to the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), to serve in leadership roles as a Director of MM and the Vanderbilt amyloidosis multidisciplinary (VAMP) programs. He was also entrusted a function of a disease team lead for plasma cell dyscrasias and lymphomas, overseeing VICC clinical research portfolio in these areas. He was invited to continue serving on the NCCN as a VICC representative on the MM, SLCA and WM guidelines where he was further elevated to serve, as a member of a discussion section writing committee for all three panels (he still serves in this role on the SLCA panel). As a clinical trialist, he was further tapped to serve as a Co-Chair of Scientific Research Committee at the VUMC/VICC since 2023, and a member of the NCTN Executive Committee.
Over the past decade, Dr. Baljevic has mentored many trainees and faculty, having received several American Society of Hematology (ASH) abstract merit awards, and has further engaged in various advocacy initiatives such as ASH Advocacy Leadership Institute workshop, as well as ASH-Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Collaboration Workshop on Regulatory Science in Hematology. He further serves as the ASH Foundation Committee member, a member of the International Myeloma Foundation (IMF), International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG). He is an active member of the ECOG-ACRIN cooperative group, where he chairs national trials in MM, and serves in several working groups and committee/subcommittees including ECOG-ACRIN Real-World Data Working Group and Immunotherapeutics / CIMAC Subcommittee.
As an invited specialist in plasma cell disorders, Dr. Baljevic has led several independent, international review committees for registrational clinical trials in MM, AL and WM which culminated in FDA regulatory decisions, and has lectured at many national and international congresses and conferences and engaged in numerous educational programs. He readily engages in house-staff education and has authored the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)-Self-Evaluation Program (SEP) Multiple Myeloma Chapter for two years as a senior author. He has contributed significantly to the development of full ambulatory delivery of next-generation of bispecific antibodies in MM where he has several grants, and in which space he has contributed to impending patent application. Over the last several years at the VUMC/VICC, Dr. Baljevic has been the top hematologic malignancy investigator/accruer.