The curative Health sector of the Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka and
New South Wales, Australia
Dr Udara Ariyasinghe
Dr. Udara Ariyasinghe is a Grade I Senior Medical Officer, who has 26 years of service in the Curative Health sector of the Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka and New South Wales, Australia.
Realizing his long term aspiration of combining Medicine with Informatics, in year 2011, Dr. Ariyasinghe obtained a Masters in Bio-Medical Informatics from the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He also obtained a PG Certificate in Medical Education from the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2010. After this, he followed the 2-year training program in Family Medicine (conducted by the College of General Practitioners of Sri Lanka) and was awarded the Membership of the College of General Practitioners of Sri Lanka (MCGP) in 2017.
Having obtained academic qualifications in the field of biomedical informatics and medical education, he used his creative and artistic abilities to deliver timely and important health messages to the general public in an engaging manner through Youtube and other social media. These included Internet-based Patient Education Material for the general public – regarding the causation, transmission and preventive measures of Covid-19 in Sri Lanka and development of Staff Education Programs for the prevention of spread of Covid- 19 in early 2020, at a time when the public and the junior health staff were unfamiliar with the nature of the COVID-19 .
He has also used his knowledge and skills in Medical Education to teach medical and paramedical professionals and trainees at several national level training institutes.
Dr. Ariyasinghe, has also been a team member of several researches and a national level program to improve the service provision for persons with sensory disabilities.