Vinita Parkash, MBBS, MPH

Vinita Parkash is a Gynecological Pathologist and a Quality and Safety expert. She received her pathology training at YaleSchool of Medicine and at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Since then, she has served as the founding two-term co-chair of the education committee for the International Society of Gynecological Pathology, whence she led the first-ever effort to produce good practice statements/guidelines for gynecological cancers. Dr. Parkash has promoted improved gynecological pathology diagnosis in low resource settings in Asia and Africa and is a mentor in the virtual gynecological pathology fellowship pilot for the International Gynecological Cancer Society. Her work on promoting cervical cancer screening in low resource settings in India has received several awards from the American Society of Cytopathology. In the advent of the Dobbs v Jackson decision, Dr. Parkash led the effort to develop guidelines for abortion tissue processing for the College of American Pathologists, for which she received the President’s Honors award. She launched and continues to moderate the Gynecological Pathology listserv, is a contributor to the 4^th and 5^th editions of the WHO-blue book on Tumors of the Female Genital Tract, the co-editor of a book on endometrial biopsies, and serves on several editorial boards.

Dr. Parkash completed her MPH in health policy from the Yale School of Public Health and a fellowship in diagnostic error reduction from the Society for the Improvement of Diagnosis in Medicine. She is the former director of quality and safety for the Yale Department of Pathology. She has designed and taught courses on quality and safety in healthcare for national meetings, the Yale School of Public Health, and Quinnipiac University, among others. She is a member of several expert panels on diagnostic error reduction including for AHRQ, Leapfrog, and the College of American Pathologists. Dr. Parkashis also a member of the ACGME’s Program Directors in Patient Safety and Quality (PDPQ) Educators Network, an effort directed at strengthening training in quality and safety for trainees.

Dr. Parkash’s current research focuses on reducing diagnostic error by improving patient engagement in the test management cycle, and on improving trust and engagement of patients in healthcare, efforts in which she collaborates with researchers at Yale School of Public Health and the Betsy Lehman Center for patient safety.