John Parziale, MD

John R. Parziale, MD is a board-certified specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation, a physiatrist in the department of rehabilitation medicine at Rhode Island Hospital and a professor of orthopedics (clinical) at The Warren Alpert Medical School, where he mentors medical students interested in a career in physical medicine and rehabilitation. 

A former physiatrist-in-chief at Rhode Island Hospital, Dr. Parziale is a national leader in physiatric education, and the recipient of the 2017 Distinguished Clinician Award from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPMR). Dr. Parziale is a dedicated physician and colleague, and is a well-respected member and distinguished leader of the medical community.

Dr. Parziale joined Rhode Island Hospital and Brown in 1986 and has practiced in the Rhode Island community for more than 30 years. In addition to chairing the Rhode Island Hospital department of rehabilitation medicine, he established the hospital’s first inpatient rehabilitation unit in 1987 and served on the hospital’s executive committee.

Dr. Parziale earned his bachelor’s degree at Brown University (ScB, cum laude) and his medical degree at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He completed his physical medicine and rehabilitation residency at Tufts Medical School in Boston, and served as the chief resident of the Tufts-affiliated hospitals’ physical medicine and rehabilitation residency program. Dr. Parziale has been a member of the Medical Advisory Board to the Rhode Island Worker’s Compensation Court for more than 20 years and was a member of the Governor’s Commission on the Handicapped. He is past vice president of the AAPMR Education and Research Foundation, and has served on the board of trustees of the Association of Academic Physiatry. He has been a consultant to the US Golf Association and the PGA Tour for many years. Dr. Parziale has been named a Rhode Island Monthly magazine’s “Top Doc” in rehabilitation medicine in every year since the program’s inception in 1994.

His research interests include physiatric education, treatment of occupational injuries, nerve compression syndromes of the upper and lower extremities, and non-operative orthopedic injuries.