USF Department of Pathology

Dr. Murray graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a bachelors degree in Biochemistry. He obtained his medical degree from Florida State University College of Medicine and Family Medicine Residency at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Florida. He completed a Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship at USF Morsani College of Medicine and has a Certificate of Added Qualifications (CAQ) in Sports Medicine. Dr. Murray serves as Team Physician for the Department of Athletics at the University of South Florida and cares for concussion patients at the USF Concussion Center. He also enjoys working as a primary care physician within USF Family Medicine department, seeing athletes ranging from young rookies to seniors with silver sneakers.

Michael Kachmar, DO, DABS, DABOM, is a fellowship-trained, board-certified general surgeon specializing in Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in Tampa, Florida. He is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and a bariatric and metabolic surgeon at Tampa General Hospital. His practice focuses on primary and revisional bariatric surgery, including gastric sleeve and gastric bypass, as well as minimally invasive weight loss surgery using advanced laparoscopic and robotic techniques. His goal is simple and consistent - to deliver safe, individualized, evidence-based care that improves long-term health and quality of life.

Dr. Kachmar earned his medical degree at Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine and completed general surgery residency training at Rowan and Inspira, where he served as Chief Resident. He completed advanced laparoscopic and Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery fellowship training at Pennington Biomedical Research Center and LSU Health Sciences Center under the mentorship of leaders in the field. He is certified by both the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Obesity Medicine, reflecting his commitment to comprehensive obesity care across surgical and medical disciplines.

An active surgeon-scientist, Dr. Kachmar’s work focuses on access, safety, and outcomes in Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, as well as the biologic mechanisms of weight loss and metabolic improvement. He has authored more than 35 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and invited commentaries, with work appearing in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, JAMA Network Open, Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, Obesity Surgery, and The American Journal of Cardiology. His research integrates national databases and translational tissue projects to support precision selection and long-term care for people living with obesity and metabolic disease. He is an active member of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) and the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), serves on their national committees, and presents regularly at major surgical meetings.

Clinically, Dr. Kachmar views obesity as a chronic disease that requires long-term, team-based, multidisciplinary care. Patients can expect compassionate communication, shared decision-making, and comprehensive follow-up before and after surgery.

Dr. Thomas McDonald was born in Florida and graduated from the University of South Florida.  He completed his MD degree at the University of Florida, residency in Internal Medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, and went on to do his cardiology and research fellowships at Stanford University.
From 1995 to 2017, he was a faculty member of the Cardiology Division and Department of Molecular Pharmacology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
Dr. McDonald has over 30 years of basic science research, primarily focused on genetic causes of cardiovascular disease.  In the past 10 years, he helped establish a clinic in Cardiac Genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York prior to arriving at USF.

Dr. McDonald has now helped establish the USF Health CARDIOGENETICS Clinic, an interdisciplinary program that provides evaluation and counseling to families that have been touched by a wide variety of genetically-determined heart diseases, such as sudden unexplained cardiac death and cardiomyopathies.
CARDIOGENETIC findings are often “actionable” in that specific prognoses, recommendations, medications, and interventions are often determined by genetic mutations discovered.
 
The clinic is a family-oriented clinic that is a collaborative effort bringing together clinicians and basic scientists from the Departments of Pediatrics, Medicine, Obstetrics, Molecular Genetics, and Physiology.