Dr. Yael K. Heher is the Associate Chief of Pathology, Quality and Safety and the Head of Renal Pathology the Massachusetts General Hospital. At the Mass General Brigham enterprise level, Dr. Heher oversees Quality and Safety for the system wide laboratory service including Mass General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Newton Wellesley, North Shore, and all MGB affiliated sites. 

Heher received her medical training at McGill University and completed her residency in anatomic pathology at the Montreal General Hospital/McGill University Health Centre. She was a Robert T. McCluskey fellow in medical renal pathology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a graduate of the inaugural class of the Harvard Medical School fellowship in Quality and Patient Safety. She received her Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health with a thesis aimed at health systems improvement. Heher’s main academic focus is the role of quality and patient safety in pathology, including implementation of high reliability principles, safety culture, systems engineering, effective change, and leadership. Prior to joining MGH, Heher led quality and patient safety and was a renal pathologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Pathology in Boston from 2011 to 2020. There she pioneered novel Pathology safety frameworks including a pathology-specific Morbidity and Mortality Conference now standard at >35 hospital systems in 11 countries. Heher is dedicated to clinical, teaching, and translational research activities in the nephrology, kidney transplant, and renal pathology communities for children and adults. She also directs the renal pathology service at Boston Children's Hospital. Heher has received numerous teaching awards from Harvard medical students and in 2018 and 2019 she was named to The Pathologist Power List by The Pathologist magazine, an honor awarded to “inspirational and influential professionals in laboratory medicine” worldwide.