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Professor Vajira H.W. Dissanayake was honoured with the Life Time Achievement Award Digital Excellence at the SLT ZeroOne Award Ceremony in Colombo, Sri Lanka for the yeomen contribution he has made over the years to promote and facilitate the development of digital health in Sri Lanka and internationally.
Prof. Vajira H.W. Dissanayake |
Professor Dissanayake’s unique contribution to the field of Digital Health dates back to 1997 when he became a founder member of the Medical Informatics Committee of the Sri Lankan Medical Association, and subsequently the first Secretary General of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka a year later.
On an initiative of the Health Informatics Society, which he spearheaded, the University of Colombo, established the Specialty Board in Biomedical Informatics with Prof. Dissanayake as its founder chairperson. The board runs the MSc in Biomedical Informatics and MD in Health Informatics Courses that lead to board certification of specialists in the field of Health Informatics in the country. Sri Lanka is only the second country in the world, after USA, to recognise Biomedical and Health Informatics as a medical specialty. Over the past decade, Sri Lanka’s Digital Health ecosystem has grown around the graduates of this program. They have spearheaded the development of a sustainable digital health ecosystem in Sri Lanka. Prof. Dissanayake has been giving leadership to these initiatives at national level since 2009.
These initiatives that commenced in Sri Lanka were internationalised in 2016 when Prof. Dissanayake took over as the President of the Commonwealth Medical Association.
The leading role that Sri Lanka is now playing globally in the field of digital health under the leadership of Prof.
Dissanayake is highlighted by;
Professor Dissanayake holds several portfolios that exemplify the role he plays to further the development of Digital Health in Sri Lanka and internationally. He is the current,
He also serves as,
In in the field of medicine he is the;
In addition to the roles he plays at the University of Colombo as,
He has held the office of President of the Sri Lanka Medical Association in 2012.
In recognition of his outstanding contribution he was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka in 2013 – the highest national honour that academics could bestow on a one of their peers.