Rasnayaka Mudiyanse

• MBBS,DCH,MD,MRCP
• Professor (Full) retireed at University of Peradeniya

Hantavirus is an infectious disease originating from rodents. It usually manifests as an acute febrile illness which can progress either as Haemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome or Hanta-Pulmonary Syndrome. This case report describes an atypical presentation of Hantavirus infection in a 12-year-old boy.

Introduction. Communication skills (CS) play a paramount role in medical students’ (MS) interaction with patients. They are essential when approaching a patient holistically to provide comprehensive care with the aim of both treating an illness and improving patient satisfaction. However, there seems to be a deficiency in communication skills train...

The University of Peradeniya’s Department of Pharmacy introduced a course on health humanities to foster advocates of humanism. Reflective writing was encouraged using an electronic copy portfolio, replaced by an ePortfolio half-way through the course. Students’ experiences and perceptions of the ePortfolio were compared to the electronic copy and...

Technology-based learning encompasses knowledge transmission, interactions, facilitation, evaluations, research, and monitoring. Smart learning at limited-resource higher education institutions presents significant challenges. We focus on five primary areas: learning evolution, learning technology, pedagogical competency gaps, assessment and feedba...

ePortfolio is a Smart Learning platform promoting self-directed, reflective, and meta-learning, which can also be used in professional development. Most Smart Learning modalities can be implemented with simple technology readily available in everyday life. However, situational factors (availability and affordability of devices, internet, etc.) and...

The high prevalence of obesity, as well as growth failure among children, is of great concern, especially in developing countries. Environmental factors, especially familial factors, have a strong influence on the food intake of preschool-aged children, and this has led to the development of psychometric scales to measure parents’ feeding practices...

The unprecedented rise in COVID-19 cases in Sri Lanka since July 2021 led to a situation where the health system was getting overwhelmed. The priority shifted toward triaging patients and identifying those who need immediate medical intervention and managing the rest in home settings. An integrated patient management system where patients could acc...

The significance of parenting on child development has been recognized as early as the 17th century. Baumrind recognized authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles in 1971. After the recognition of responsiveness and demanding dimensions of parenting, a 4th entity called neglectful parenting also emerged. The implications of pare...

UNESCO Sri Lanka teamed up with a group of medical professionals experienced in teaching communication to develop a two-day workshop to train teacher trainers to teach empathy in school. Ten empathetic competencies; literacy, perception, communication, action, self-control, collaboration, identity, courage, imagination, and change maker were recogn...

Introduction: The UNESCO Sri Lanka, having recognized the value of teaching empathy in schools, plans to train a group of Senior Educational Managers as National Trainers along the lines of ten trainable empathetic competencies. These are empathetic literacy, perspective taking, communication, action, collaboration, self-control, courage, moral ide...

Background: Disciplining refers to teaching and nurturing children to achieve competence, self-control, self-direction and caring attitudes. Healthy parenting builds positive relationships and healthy personality in children. Punishments express the anger or desperation of caregiver. Objectives: The objective of the study was to explore the inten...

Background: Early childhood is a period of rapid brain development that paves the way for growth of self-regulation skills. This is the perfect time for caregivers to actively teach and coach skills like decision making and problem-solving. Parental warmth, responsiveness, and sensitivity support to self-regulation development of the children. Obj...

Communication is an integral part of life. One cannot refrain from communicating with others. In clinical practice, health care professionals communicate with patients to gather information to arrive at a diagnosis, plan management, execute a treatment, and monitor the progress of the illness. Communication is the tool that we use in the prevention...

Aims: To evaluate the prevalence of endocrine complications in beta thalassaemia major patients in one of thalassaemia treatment units in Sri Lanka. Methods: The patients (n = 40) aged >2 years admitted to the Teaching Hospital Peradeniya during the period of December 2013 to December 2014, under the treatment of iron chelation drugs were recruited...

Background: Patient-centred care is one of the essential elements of high-quality patient care. It requires physicians and other healthcare providers to have communication skills to elicit patients’ true wishes and to recognise and respond to both their needs and their emotional concerns. Training communication skills is known to enhance patient ce...

University students are particularly subjected to stressors. Student can be stressed due to different stressors such as academic, financial and health related issues and female students suffer considerably higher level of stress than male students. Stress is the bodies’ reaction both neurologically and physiologically to adapt to the new condition....

Objectives Our aim was to describe the numbers and distribution of patients with different types of thalassemia and to assess the standards of care in all thalassemia treatment centers throughout Sri Lanka and the success of the ongoing prevention programme. Methods This cross-sectional island-wide survey was conducted by two trained medical gradu...

Introduction and objectives: Obesity associates with the risk of hypertension, heart disease, diabetes mellitus and cancers. BMI as well as Waist circumference (WC) are accurate and simple measures of obesity. Bio Impedance Analysis (BIA) method can measure the visceral fat. This study aims to investigate the association between anthropometric indi...

Aims To assess the physical, social, and emotional health of children more than 12 years of age with beta thalassemia major at the Professorial Paediatric Unit, Teaching Hospital Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and to identify the clinical profiles and medical complications among these children. Method This case control study included all children (n=40)...

Despite severe tracheal narrowing, the work of breathing was normal, with adequate weight gain. Overnight oximetry showed normal saturations, with desaturations below 92% occurring in less than 3% of the study time. Gas exchange was normal. At initial counselling sessions, parents were keen to avoid tracheostomy. However, whilst still an inpatient,...

Aims Thalassemia presents with a wide range of physical signs involving entire systems of the body that demands sharp clinical skills. Their lives are full of sensitive stories related to physical, psychosocial, and economic implications of the disease. As such revealing the entire story with their ideas concern and expectations create a formidable...

Background: Obesity is widely recognized as a major health hazard due to its association with increased risk of heart disease, diabetes mellitus, and cancers. Body Mass Index (BMI) is the most popular method of measuring obesity. However, Waist circumference (WC) is a specific, sensitive and simple method to assess abdominal obesity. In Sri Lanka,...

Excess body fat carries a higher risk of morbidity and mortality in worldwide. It’s necessary to use reliable, cost-effective and broadly applicable methods to assess body fat. Various measures are used to detect excess body fat and the risk of obesity related co-morbidities. Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), skin fold thickness (SFT...

Beta thalassemia is a common monogenic hereditary hemoglobinopathy which is associated with compound complications. Zinc deficiency, which is commonly observed in thalassemia patients, is also associated with multiple health complications. The objective of this study was to determine the zinc status and its effect on the growth and immune functions...

Background: Thalassaemia presents a range of serious clinical and psychological challenges during its clinical course. Only limited data exists regarding health related quality of life of children with beta thalassemia major in Sri Lanka. Objectives: To assess the physical, social, and emotional health of children more than 12 years of age with bet...

Bedside teaching contributes to deep learning, mastering skills and developing attitudes in real situations by practice, reflections, feedback and analysis of role modelling. The Seven-step method is a useful approach in bedside teaching to induce learner engagement and critical thinking specially when dealing with large groups. Learners seem to ag...

Aims: Beta thalassemia is the most common monogenic hereditary hemoglobin disorder, which poses a major health burden to Sri-Lanka. Regular transfusions of erythrocytes required for survival of these patients lead to inevitable iron overload, which is manifested, by elevated serum ferritin levels. Progressive deposition of iron leads to dysfunction...

Professor Senaka Bibile’s character has many virtues that doctors, medical students, other health professionals as well as administrators can learn from. Furthermore, he championed concepts that are currently accepted as benchmarks in medical education. Therefore, the Bibile memorial oration is an excellent platform to discuss concepts that would f...

Doctors resort to conceal information or even to give partially wrong information with the intention of safeguarding patient’s benefit. This stand is not acceptable for medical ethicists. However not divulging the entire truth has been seemingly beneficial in three case scenarios presented in this paper. Three case scenarios involve avoiding invest...

Communication skills are essential for all categories of health care workers. The Calgary Cambridge Model of communication is accepted as a doctor patient communication model in Europe and Canada. It has world-wide recognition and is now used as a model for teaching communication in disciplines like nursing and veterinary science. Since the value o...

Introduction-Patient centred attitudes are valuable attributes of doctors that should be preserved and enhanced during education programs. Curriculum related deterioration of attitudes has been recorded in literature. Relevant data on the impact of short-term training courses conducted in Sri Lanka is not available. Objective-To compare and evaluat...

Practice of family medicine and patient centeredness does not get the deserved attention in clinical practice and teaching in Sri Lanka. Non-availability of tools for assessment of patient centeredness deters the process of curricular development and research. The Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS) is a self-administered tool that assess...

ABSTRACT Students’ perceptions of the educational environment reflect their satisfaction, behaviour, achievements and final outcome. Although the DREEM score at the Medical Faculty in the current study was satisfactory, some items demonstrated low scores. Negatively scored items as a whole suggested the existence of drawbacks in relation to giving...

Genetic diseases devastate the society. Out of 9 million birth defects 7.9 are due to genetic causes. Management of most of the inherited disorders are very expensive and not affordable to majority. Early detection and lifelong therapy is mandatory. Palliative nature of the treatments available prolongs lives resulting in accumulation of cases and...

Thalassaemia instigates an enormous health problem all over the world, due to the palliative nature of life long treatment and the cost involved. The available preventive strategies are not simple and not universally acceptable. The concept of “safe marriage” proposed for thalassaemia prevention in Sri Lanka recommends to ensure that one partner in...

Sri Lanka is known for its commendable healthcare indices in the region. Now the country is going through a transition of economic development after the devastation as a result of a 30-year war and the natural disaster of a tsunami in 2004. At the same time, there is a demographic and epidemiological transition. The proportion of older population i...

Background: Enhancing patient-centredness is the primary goal of professionalism. The aim of this study is to explore the institutional environment of patient centredness in medical schools in Sri Lanka. Summary of Work: The Communication, Curriculum and Culture (C3) questionnaire was validated and used as the survey instrument. It measures the ins...

Acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI) is a significant cause of respiratory disease worldwide.1 A strict definition of ARTI would include all infections of the respiratory tract. However, in practice, acute lower respiratory infection accounts for most of the serious disease burden.2 ARTI is extremely common in children between the ages of 2 and...

36th Annual Academic sessions - February 2014

The practice of family medicine is not well established in many developing countries including Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Government funds and runs the health facilities which cater to the health needs of a majority of the population. Services of a first contact doctor delivered by full time, vocationally trained, Family Physicians is generally over...

Abstract Introduction Patient centred attitudes are valuable attributes of doctors that should be preserved and enhanced during education programs. Curriculum related deterioration of attitudes has been recorded in literature. Relevant data on the impact of short-term training courses conducted in Sri Lanka is not available. Objective To compa...

Abstract Background: The value of patient centred approaches as oppose to traditional doctor centred approaches in delivery of patient care has been increasingly recognized. Positive as well as negative impact of the curriculum on student’s patient centred attitudes have been reported. There is evidence to suggest that the curriculum could be desi...

ABSTRAT Introduction Students’ perceptions about the educational environment determine their satisfaction, behaviour, achievements and final outcome. Previous studies in this medical faulty using Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) has reported poor perception of students with regards to learning, about teachers and self-academic...

Background- Faculty of Medicine Peradeniya conducts a one month intensive course of training at the beginning of clinical appointment for 3rd year medical students. Patient centeredness is a valuable attribute that could be inculcated among medical students during such programs. Patient Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS) evaluates patient center...

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF THE OSCE CONDUCTED FOR THIRD YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS OF THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF PERADENIYA Wickramatunga P.G.I.S1, Ganearachchi I.N2, Samaranayake P.G.W.S3, Kudagammana T4, Mudiyanse R.M5. 1,2,3,4 and 5 – Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya. Background – Assessment of studen...

The sting of Giant Asian honeybee (Apis dorsata) or Bambara in Sinhala and Karunge Kulavi in Tamil is a common environmental hazard in Sri Lanka known to cause immediate allergic reactions, which could be fatal in sensitized individuals. We reported myocardial infarction, bowel gangrene and fatal anaphylaxis in a prospectively proven case series an...

Due to its excessive cost thalassemia management is a major health care problem in Sri Lanka. The majority of doctors are using only desferrioxamine (DFO), in grossly inadequate doses mainly because of its unavailability. Deferiprone (L1), which is more affordable, is not used due to fear of toxicity, as previously reported. Arthropathy attributed...