Parkin completed a medical degree and a postgraduate diploma in
obstetrics at the University of Otago, and practised as a
GP in New Zealand and Australia.
PhD titled
Risk factors for venous thromboembolism at the University of Otago, supervised by
Charlotte Paul and
David Skegg. Parkin then joined the faculty of the university, rising to associate professor in 2019, and full professor in 2023. Parkin has researched the association between blood clots and flying, finding that long-distance flights did increase the risk of pulmonary embolism but that dying from the condition was still rare. She and her research group have also investigated the link between the cholesterol-lowering drugs
statins and the muscle disease
rhabdomyolysis, and noted an increased risk of the kidney condition
interstitial nephritis from the use of
proton-pump inhibitors. Parkin has received grant funding to investigate how type 2 diabetics in New Zealand use metformin. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, Parkin studied the proportion of people scanning QR codes at public venues to enable contact tracing. She also looked at the proportion of students at the university reporting their Covid infections, finding that although more than 94% of surveyed student flats had cases during the study period, more than a third of infected students did not report their positive test result. == Honours and awards ==