Dr. Dipen J Parekh serves as Professor and Chairman of the Urology Department at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is the holder of the Victor E. Politano Endowed Chair in Urology and serves as the Director of Robotic Surgery for the University of Miami-UHealth. In August 2017, Dr. Parekh was named Chief Clinical Officer of the University of Miami Health System. In January 2020, Dr. Parekh was named Chief Operating Officer of the University of Miami-UHealth System overseeing all operations and clinical departments. In 2021, Dr. Parekh was named Executive Dean for Clinical Affairs at the Miller School of Medicine. Dr Parekh was instrumental in establishing the Desai Sethi Urology Institute, a premier urological center of excellence within the Miller School created to accelerate breakthrough advances in research, expand clinical care, and train future generations of urologists where he serves as the Founding Director. Within 2 years of its inception, the institute is within the top 15 NIH funded research programs for urology nationally.
Dr Parekh is a recipient of significant awards including the Gold Cystoscope Award, one of the most prestigious awards presented to one individual each year by the American Urological Association (AUA) and the Sushruta Award from IAUA. He was inducted in the Iron Arrow Society, the highest honor conferred by the University of Miami as well as the prestigious and elite American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons (AAGUS) and the Clinical Society of Genitourinary Surgeons (CSGUS) . He was recently selected in the Beckers national list of 60 COOs of Academic Health system to know. He served as Principal Investigator of the only National Cancer Institute RO1 Grant sponsored phase 3 multi-institutional clinical trial comparing open and robotic cystectomy for bladder cancer. Dr. Parekh completed the first ever prospective clinical study on clamp renal ischemia during partial nephrectomy with transformative results. In 2018, his findings were published in the Lancet, the journal with the highest impact factor and the most widely circulated publication in the world.
Dr. Parekh is a board-certified, fellowship trained urologist specializing in urologic oncology using minimally invasive laparoscopic, robotic and traditional open approaches to treat prostate, bladder and kidney cancer, and has performed over 7,000 robotic urologic oncology procedures. Dr. Parekh has started several robotic surgery centers and programs of excellence both nationally and internationally. As part of his research interest, Dr. Parekh has been an active investigator in Urologic Oncology for the past 18 years predominantly in clinical trials and in translational research with a focus on prevention, detection, and treatment of genitourinary malignancies. He is the author of over 180 scientific papers, abstracts and book chapters, has lectured and performed complex surgeries throughout the United States, Europe, India, China and Latin America.
Dr Parekh continues to remain clinically and surgically active while performing all his leadership roles serving as a true physician operational leader.