Malini Nijagal, MD

Clinical Professor
Ob/Gyn, Reproductive Sciences
+1 415 473-6753

Dr. Malini Nijagal (she/her) is an obstetrician and gynecologist who provides care at both Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and UCSF Health. Her non-clinical care focuses on reducing inequities in care access, experience and outcomes during pregnancy and the postpartum period.

The main focus of Nijagal's creative work is designing and implementing novel and sustainable models of care both within clinical settings (clinic, hospital) and in the community using a cross-sector approach. Her work leverages her expertise in areas of Human Centered Design, quality improvement, change management strategy, healthcare financing, and institutional-community collaboration. She also focuses how on how high value maternity care should be defined through an equity lens, and how healthcare payment design can be used to encourage superior care and outcomes.

Nijagal earned her medical degree at UCSF and completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She has a master of public health degree, with a focus on health care management, from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Publications: 

The Family and Pregnancy Pop-Up Village: Developing a one-stop shop of services to reduce pregnancy care-related inequities in San Francisco.

Birth (Berkeley, Calif.)

Nijagal MA, Odiase OJ, Bell AJ, El Ayadi AM, Williams S, Nicolaisen C, Jacobs G, Mack B, LaSerre M, Stewart C, Crockett K, Afulani PA

Physician Suicide: A Personal Story and Call to Action.

Journal of pediatric surgery

Jelin A, Nijagal M, Wu A, Flaherty M, Perrone EE

System-Level Factors Associated With Telephone and Video Visit Use: Survey of Safety-Net Clinicians During the Early Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

JMIR formative research

Sharma AE, Khoong EC, Sierra M, Rivadeneira NA, Nijagal MA, Su G, Lyles CR, DeFries T, Tuot DS, Sarkar U

Using human centered design to identify opportunities for reducing inequities in perinatal care.

BMC health services research

Nijagal MA, Patel D, Lyles C, Liao J, Chehab L, Williams S, Sammann A

Clinician experience with telemedicine at a safety-net hospital network during COVID-19: a cross-sectional survey.

Journal of health care for the poor and underserved

Sharma AE, Khoong EC, Nijagal MA, Lyles CR, Su G, DeFries T, Sarkar U, Tuot D

Ensuring Equitable Implementation of Telemedicine in Perinatal Care.

Obstetrics and gynecology

Ukoha EP, Davis K, Yinger M, Butler B, Ross T, Crear-Perry J, Perron-Burdick M, Nijagal MA

Patient interest in and barriers to telemedicine video visits in a multilingual urban safety-net system.

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA

Khoong EC, Butler BA, Mesina O, Su G, DeFries TB, Nijagal M, Lyles CR

Standardized outcome measures for pregnancy and childbirth, an ICHOM proposal.

BMC health services research

Nijagal MA, Wissig S, Stowell C, Olson E, Amer-Wahlin I, Bonsel G, Brooks A, Coleman M, Devi Karalasingam S, Duffy JMN, Flanagan T, Gebhardt S, Greene ME, Groenendaal F, R Jeganathan JR, Kowaliw T, Lamain-de-Ruiter M, Main E, Owens M, Petersen R, Reiss I, Sakala C, Speciale AM, Thompson R, Okunade O, Franx A

Both patients and maternity care providers can benefit from payment reform: four steps to prepare.

American journal of obstetrics and gynecology

Nijagal MA, Shah NT, Levin-Scherz J

The Association of Expanded Access to a Collaborative Midwifery and Laborist Model With Cesarean Delivery Rates.

Obstetrics and gynecology

Rosenstein MG, Nijagal M, Nakagawa S, Gregorich SE, Kuppermann M

8: The effect of expanded midwifery and hospitalist services on primary cesarean delivery rates.

American journal of obstetrics and gynecology

Melissa Rosenstein, Malini Nijagal, Sanae Nakagawa, Steven Gregorich, Miriam Kuppermann

Two practice models in one labor and delivery unit: association with cesarean delivery rates.

American journal of obstetrics and gynecology

Nijagal MA, Kuppermann M, Nakagawa S, Cheng Y