Dr. Victor McKusick, internist and medical geneticist, University Professor of Medicine at the John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, died Tuesday at his home in Baltimore. He was 86.

Officials at Johns Hopkins University said he died after complications from cancer.

McKusick, a winner of the National Medal of Science, was a pioneer in linking diseases to specific genes and began the first database of gene functions. He is widely regarded as the father of clinical medical genetics.

McKusick founded the Johns Hopkins Division of Medical Genetics in 1957. In 1973, he became chairman of its department of medicine and physician-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

In 1966, McKusick first published his catalogue of all known genes and genetic disorders, “Mendelian Inheritance in Man (MIM),” with 1,500 entries on inherited disorders.

His scientific works in medical genetics, cardiology, and internal medicine include: Medical Genetics Studies of the Amish, Selected Papers Assembled with Commentary (1978); Probable Assignment of the Duffy Blood Group Locus to Chromosome 1 in Man (1968); and A Synopsis of Clinical Auscultation, Being a Treatise on Cardiovascular and Respiratory Sound, Introduced by a Historical Survey, Illustrated by Sound Spectrograms (Spectral Phonocardiograms), and Supplemented by a Comprehensive Bibliography (1956).

Dr. McKusick is survived by his wife, Ann; a daughter, Carol Anne McKusick of Urbana, Ill.; and two sons, Kenneth McKusick of Ruxton, Md., and Rev. Victor McKusick of Herkimer, N.Y.

“Today we lost a giant,” Dr. Edward D. Miller, dean and chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine, said yesterday in a statement. “He spent virtually all of his incredible career at Hopkins, but his influence and legacy reach around the world.”