Dr. Anoma Jayasinghe becomes first and Sri Lankan member of prestigious IAASM

SriLankan Airlines Group Medical Officer Dr. Anoma Jayasinghe has become the first Sri Lankan professional in aviation medicine to be selected as a Member of the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine (IAASM), in recognition of her contribution to this field in Sri Lanka for over a decade.

Aviation and Space Medicine are the fields in medicine which are concerned with the maintenance of health, safety and performance of those involved in aviation or space activity. Founded in 1955, IAASM (www.iaasm.org) has a limited membership of approximately 240medical professionals from around the world, from airlines, civil aviation regulatory authorities, and organisations involved in aviation and space travel.

Dr. Jayasinghe would be Academician of IAASM. Academicians are leaders in aerospace medicine and related sciences who work as a select group and provide a platform for academics and medical professionals to present original scientific papers related to aviation and space medicine.

Dr. Jayasinghe is a Member of the Medical Board of the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) for which she also serves as a Medical Examiner. She is a full member of the Australian Society of Aerospace Medicine, a Member of the Aero Space Medical Association USA (AsMA), and a Designated Aviation Medical Examiner of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority Australia (CASA).

She is also an active member and acts in the capacity of a technical advisor for the project CAPSCA (Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation) which is affiliated to IATA and ICAO. This project is considered important for the aviation sector due to the various outbreaks of communicable diseases in the last decade.

A past pupil of Vishaka Vidyalaya, she earned her first qualifications at the North Colombo Medical College, Ragama and the University of West Indies in Barbados. She was originally trained in anaesthesiology at the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine of the University of Colombo but eventually opted for a career in Aviation Medicine. 

She pursued post-graduate training in Aviation Medicine and obtained the Australian Certificate of Civil Aviation Medicine from Monash University; Aviation Medicine Course from Singapore Aviation Academy; and a Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety from the University of Colombo.

She served at the General Hospital Anuradhapura where she handled disaster management, trauma cases and aeromedical evacuation of patients during the civil war, during her internship and thereafter was attached to the Military Hospital in Colombo. During this time, she spent significant time in the frontline including the Jaffna Peninsula and its outlying islands, handling battle casualties at all times of day and night.

She later served at the Colombo North General Hospital in Ragama where she was the Resident Anaesthetist and Medical Officer in Charge of the Intensive Care Unit. She joined SriLankan Airlines in 2002.