By Kimani Kuria
Being a doctor is a mixture of brains, discipline, dedication and passion. Dr. Asha Sigei is all this and much more as her recent appointment attests. She was appointed the Chief Pathologist and Medical Director of the Iredell Memorial Hospital Laboratory. Here is her career journey as told by WoK.
Educational Background
In 2005, she enrolled at the University of Nairobi to pursue a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) and graduated in 2010. She then relocated to the United States of America the following year and joined the University of Maryland where she pursued a Certificate in HIV Skills Laboratory. In 2013, she joined St. Louis’s Washington University to take up another certification, this time in Clinical Management. After two years, she decided to go for her master’s degree from the Duke University School of Medicine. In 2016, she graduated with a Master of Management in Clinical Informatics from the institution.
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Career
Dr Sigei worked as a physician at the Kericho District Hospital. In 2012, She joined the Africa Society for Blood Transfusion in Kericho as a Project Manager. In 2013, she became a mentor and motivational speaker in a Kericho County Student Mentorship Program. Between January and June 2016, Asha Sigei joined Duke University in an MMCI Practicum Project. This was shortly followed by a move into a Data Analyst job in Raleigh-Durham North Carolina’s K4Connect holding it between June and August of the same year.
Asha Sigei went on to undertake her pathology residency at Johnson City’s East Tennessee State University between December 2016 and December 2020. She then got a Telemedicine Consultancy job at TouchCare LLC in September. With her master’s degree, she joined the Association of Pathology Informatics as a junior committee member in 2017. From the beginning of January 2021, she became a Charleston’s Medical University of South Carolina as a Hematopathology Fellow.
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As a professional, Asha is certified with the American Board of Pathology and affiliated to the Piedmont Pathology Associates.
Iredell Health System
In an official post on the Iredell Health System website on Thursday 6th January 2022, the institution announced her placement at the Iredell Memorial Laboratory as the chief pathologist and laboratory medical director. She went on to respond to the news saying, “At Iredell, I hope to promote the practice of pathology through patient-centric care.” Her role at the institution will include overseeing laboratory clinical functions and facilitating accurate patient diagnostic testing.
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Medical Organization Memberships
Asha Sigei is a member of the American Society for Clinical Pathology, the Association of Pathology Informatics, the College of American Pathologists, and the American Society of Cytopathology. On these platforms, she contributes to policy-making in the field and collaborating with other industry professionals to further research, and build knowledge.
Awards
During her professional work in Kenya, she was awarded “Outstanding Healthcare Professional of the Year” in 2012 from the Kericho District Hospital. Maintaining this excellence throughout her career, Asha Sigei was in 2018 awarded the East Tennessee State University Excellence in Pathology Award. This was not the end of it, as she won the award again in 2019 and 2020.
