3 days ago
What patients can expect from the new leader of a South Florida hospital system
The University of Miami Health System has a new leader.
Dr. Dipen Parekh, a surgeon who led the hospital system through the COVID-19 pandemic, will now serve as UHealth's chief executive officer and UM's executive vice president for Health Affairs.
As UHealth CEO, Parekh will oversee the more than 17,500 employees who work across the hospital system at more than 100 facilities, including Bascom Palmer Institute, the nation's top hospital for opthalmology, and Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in South Florida.
The urologic oncologist wants UM to 'push the frontiers of research.' That goal may be challenging at a time when more than 1,000 research grants in the country have been terminated by the federal government, according to a database created by two scientists documenting the terminations and as reported by STAT News.
Parekh also sees more AI in the future of healthcare in South Florida.
'The demand for our services is increasing every day, and our responsibility is to meet that demand without compromising the excellence that defines UHealth,' Parekh told the Miami Herald Wednesday in an email. 'To do so, we must continue to improve how patients access our care—whether that's through new locations, more efficient systems, or advanced technologies. Artificial intelligence will play a key role in this effort.
'AI holds tremendous promise in helping us make smarter decisions, improve outcomes, and enhance the experience for both patients and providers.'
UM's Board of Trustees unanimously agreed this week to promote Parekh, UHealth's chief operating officer and a longtime urology chair at UM's medical school, to CEO. The surgeon will takes over the top job from Joseph Echevarria, who since 2024 has juggled the jobs of UM and UHealth president and UHealth CEO. Echevarria will remain president.
Parekh considers expansion to be one of the health system's greatest challenges — and opportunities — and has played a key role in UHealth's recent push into North Miami-Dade and Doral, one of South Florida's hottest growing medical hubs. Like other health systems, UHealth is trying to bring care closer to patients, a strategy to not only improve access to care, but to also attract and retain patients and employees.
'Dipen has played a pivotal role each step of the way as the University of Miami Health System has grown into one of the top academic medical centers in the country,' Echevarria said in a statement. 'He understands the mission —from the operating room to the classroom to the boardroom — and he embodies the excellence we strive to deliver for our patients, students, and community.'
Who is UHealth's new CEO?
UHealth is now the second hospital system in South Florida to be currently led by a physician. The veteran surgeon, one of UM's highest paid employees, has performed more than 6,000 robotic urologic cancer surgeries and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, including a 'groundbreaking trial, published in The Lancelet in 2018, which established the efficacy of robotic-assisted surgery for bladder cancer,' according to the university.
Parekh joined UM's medical school in 2012 as the chair of urology and is also the founding director of the Desai Seithi Urology Institute. He became chief clinical officer, his first system-wide administrative role, in 2017, before becoming chief operating officer in 2020, when COVID struck and hospitals became overwhelmed with sick patients. Besides being tasked with overseeing UHealth's day-to-day operations, Parekh in 2021 was also made executive dean for clinical affairs at UM's Miller School of Medicine. Becker's Hospital Review named him among the top 60 academic health system COO's to know in 2024.
The private university declined to reveal is new salary.
For years, UHealth has been the only academic health system in South Florida although that will change once Baptist Health South Florida finalizes the process of becoming the future teaching hospital of Florida International University. FIU has tapped Nicklaus Children's Health System to be its pediatric teaching hospital. UHealth's teaching hospital is Jackson Memorial, part of Miami-Dade's public hospital network.
At UM's medical school and health system, researchers have long tackled infectious diseases, cancer treatments and therapies, Alzheimer's, dementia, genetic diseases and many other conditions. The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis is working with Elon Musk's startup company Neuralink to test whether its brain chip can give people who are paralyzed the ability to use mind to wirelessly control computers, smartphones and other electronic devices.
'Our role as an academic health system is not just to care for patients, but to lead in innovation, discovery, and training the next generation of healthcare leaders,' said Parekh, who plans to keep caring for patients while serving as CEO. 'That's what sets us apart — and that's what we'll continue to build on.'
