Deeksha Sikri

About Deeksha Sikri

Pathology education is often reduced to slides stained in a thousand shades of pink and purple. Yet, those hues matter because they crystallize the underlying mechanism. The same blush of eosin can tell two different tales – the pink of a dead cell or the pink of a misfolded protein. Likewise, red-cell destruction can reveal itself differently – jaundice (hyperbilirubinemia), fatigue (anemia), and fragmented cells on a smear. Pathology links disease processes to bedside decision-making and population-level policymaking. When COVID-19 shook the world, the roadmap of pathology – observe, explain, act – powered the engine that drove medical successes. Laboratory professionals were able to deliver the first-generation PCR assays within weeks, identify the thrombo-inflammatory cascade as an actionable target of anticoagulant and ventilatory protocols, and pinpoint the spike protein sequence to develop the vaccine. The exact roadmap appears in history, linking HPV to cervical cancer, and drives the future- precision oncology, AI morphometrics, and every new “omics” frontier. This is possible only when we treat pathology not merely as a discipline, but as a practice. In my experience as an educator across continents, I have witnessed the dissolution of pathology into a fog of basic sciences. Assessments drive learning, but if the focus is on facts, students can name the stains but are unsure why they matter, potentially missing a diagnostic tool for an unknown disorder of tomorrow.

Since pathology must constantly be visible and clinically relevant in an ever-evolving curriculum, I built a living framework anchored in the Association of Academic Pathology competencies, NBME content categories, a progressive sequence in standard textbooks like Robbins and Cotran's Pathological Basis of Disease, and, most importantly, continuous learner feedback. Within a recently developed all-active-learning medical curriculum, I am creating weekly 60-minute learning experiences that ask learners to trace each disease from the invisible (genes and proteins) to the visible (morphology and clinical features) and then back again. The facilitator reviews this disease framework during each problem-based learning session to ensure that any redundancy and repetition are deliberate and intentional. Beyond campus, the same compass guides a visual-pathology micro-learning project on social media, which translates images into stories  – flashcards, videos, and AI-assisted podcasts  – reaching tens of thousands of learners worldwide. I also develop complementary resources, such as e-learning modules, interactive workbooks on OneNote and Articulate, and “follow-the-sample” animations that embed the framework into formal coursework. Collaboration is the multiplier: I co-design cross-disciplinary sessions with biochemists, immunologists, microbiologists, pharmacologists, and practicing pathologists. I also advocate for and represent pathology’s voice in the curricular chorus. Appreciation for the field must begin early, not in a subspecialty elective.

I am working towards a shared, open-access resource hub for educators and learners to help them navigate similar curricular challenges. The colors of disease will continue to shift, and our task as educators is to translate them into lifesaving action by turning pictures into stories  – across disciplines, from the first day of training to the last day of practice.