Prof Rohini Senevirathne, Consultant Community Physician, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Rathmalana (KDU), Sri Lanka was awarded the Medal of Merit Award during the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health conference held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 8th December 2020.
Citation for Prof Rohini Senevirathne
Sunitha Rohini De Alwis Seneviratne (MD, Community Medicine (Colombo), MMedEd (Honours)(Dundee, UK), DipMedEd (Dundee, UK), MBBS (Ceylon)(Honours), FCCP(SL), is a Senior Professor in Community Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine, at General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Ratmalana and the Director Quality Assurance Centre and past Dean, Research and Development, at the same University. She is a Board Certified Specialist in Community Medicine. She is also currently the Chairperson, National Health Research Council, Ministry of Health and a member of the Standing Committee on Quality Assurance of the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka. .
She is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Colombo, having served at the Faculty of Medicine, the University of Colombo for three and a half decades as a lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Professor and Senior Professor.
At Colombo Medical Faculty she served as Director of the Medical Education Development and Research Centre, Director Curriculum Implementation Unit and was the Founder Director, of the WHO has served Collaborating Centre for Training and Research in Occupational Health and also gave leadership to establish the Occupation health Unit at the Department.
At University of Colombo she contributed as the Director, Staff Development Centre, and as the Director of the Local Technical Secretariat for implmentaiton of World Bank Project for Improvement of Relevane and Quality of Undergradute Education in University system.
Her contribution to Public Health /Community Medicine has spanned over four and a half decades in the areas of teaching and learning, research and services to the community.
Research
Her knowledge, skills, experience, expertise, related to research have been extensively utilized in review of research protocols for approval for higher degrees at Faculties and Universities, and for award of grants by the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Research Council (NRC), National Health Research Council (NHRC), and Ministry of Health.
She has contributed to development of postgraduate courses and curricula in Community Medicine and in research and also has taught on research methods courses for undergraduate and postgraduates.
She has been the Head of Health Systems Research Unit of the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo.
As the Chairperson of the National Health Research Council she has been in the forefront in developing Codes of Practice for research, research governance strategy and guidelines at national level for health research.
Professor Seneviratne has been a recipient of: Presidential Awards for Research for Scientific Publication, from 2007 -2011, research awards National Science Foundation, National Research Council Merit Many Professional Colleges and Associations.
She has been a mentor for young researchers and has supervised 40 completed dissertations and doctoral theses and also has functioned as an examiner at MD (Theses), MPhil, Masters research and is a current supervisor. Professor Seneviratne has over 200 research publications in areas of public health, medical education, occupational health and safety in indexed, peer-reviewed, national and international journals and non-indexed peer-reviewed journals.
Undergraduate and Postgraduate education in Public Health
Her teaching contribution to undergraduate medical students spans over 40 years. She was in the forefront of the curriculum change undertaken by the Colombo Medical faculty which culminated in a hybrid medical curriculum and a community medicine public health curriculum known as the Community Stream Curriculum running throughout the five years. A highlight of this has been the 9-day community residential programme for medical student which continues to date.
At postgraduate level she has been a visiting lecturer, an examiner in Community Medicine and Community Dentistry and in Human Nutrition at Masters and Doctoral level for 30 years and has been the Chairperson of the Board of Study in Community Medicine at the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine of University of Colombo.
Other Contributions
Currently she is the Co-editor of the Journal of the National Science Foundation, in Sri Lanka, the only journal in Sri Lanka cited in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE). She has been a Member Editorial Board of the South-East Asia Journal of Public Health, and Founder Editor and Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the College of Community Physiciancs of Sri Lanka
She has been a member of Expert Panels, Steering Committees and Task Forces of Ministries of Health, Labour, Higher Education, University Grants Commission and Presidential Secretariat. She has been a Consultant in Quality Assurance and Accreditation to the University Grants Commission for QA review of study programmes and Institutional reviews of Sri Lankan Universities.
She has served as a Temporary Advisor to the World Health Organization, South East Asia Regional Office, New Delhi and at Head Quarter Geneva Switzerland on Occupation Health, Reproductive Health, Climate Change and Medical Education.
She has edited two books and contributed to several technical text books for undergraduates and postgraduates in epidemiology, basic medical statistics and occupational health and two monographs.
Awards
She is an Honorary Fellow of the College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka, since 2005 and has received two Commonwealth Fellowship, several Fellowships, training grants awarded by the World Health Organization and several other International Agencies.