Amar H. Kelkar, MD, MPH

Elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees in June 2026, Amar H. Kelkar, MD, MPH, is a hematologist, medical oncologist and stem cell transplant physician. He serves as an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and as the director of the bone marrow transplant survivorship clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) where he is also co-lead of the gene therapy program.

Clinically, Dr. Kelkar practices in Boston at DFCI and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, caring for patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation and gene and cell therapies, with a  focus on blood disorders such as leukemia and sickle cell disease.

A dedicated advocate for health system reform that is patient-centered and physician-led, Dr. Kelkar is highly engaged in organized medicine through the AMA, the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT), and the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS). Within the AMA, his leadership experience includes a decade of service in the AMA House of Delegates, as well as previously serving on the AMA Council on Legislation and the AMA/Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee as an advisor for hematology. He also has served on the MMS Board of Trustees, the ASH Committee on Practice, the ASH Subcommittee on Reimbursement, the ASTCT Government Relations Committee, and the ASTCT Payer Relations Committee.

Dr. Kelkar’s policy efforts focus on critical, systemic issues including Medicare payment reform, Medicaid defense, drug pricing, access to care, reproductive healthcare, research funding and evidence-based public health. His academic research intersects clinical practice with health economics, decision science, cost-effectiveness modeling, clinical innovation and health system-level impact, and the ethical implementation of augmented intelligence in healthcare.

A recipient of the 2024 ASTCT New Investigator Award, his work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, Blood, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. Kelkar holds a degree in biological sciences from Cornell University and earned his medical degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, a fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at the University of Florida College of Medicine, and an advanced fellowship in stem cell transplantation at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. A fellow of the American College of Physicians, Dr. Kelkar also earned his Master of Public Health in clinical effectiveness from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Kelkar resides in the Boston area with his wife, Noopur, who is a practicing OB-GYN, and their young son, Sahaan.

2026–2027

Board of Trustees speaker request form

To request a member of the AMA Board of Trustees to speak at an upcoming event, please read the terms and conditions, complete and submit the form.

For the media

• Download a high-resolution image
• For media inquiries, please contact [email protected]