Lifetime Achievement Award for Prof. Sujeewa Amarasena

Renowned paediatrician and University of Ruhuna Vice Chancellor Prof. Sujeewa Amarasena received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to perinatal and new-born care in Sri Lanka at the recently concluded Annual Scientific Congress of the Perinatal Society of Sri Lanka held at Hotel Galadari in Colombo held recently. 

The award was presented by Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratna amidst a large gathering of reputed international and national leaders in perinatal care and representatives of WHO and UN agencies.

He received this award for his outstanding contribution to improve perinatal care over a period of 25 years during which period neonatal mortality and morbidity improved significantly in the country due to interventions initiated with his contributions.

Following his overseas training in neonatal intensive care including both emergency road and air transport of sick new-borns at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne and Royal Alexandra Hospital for children in Sydney and return to Sri Lanka in 1994, he was able to help develop a neonatal intensive care unit in Karapitiya which functions very well today saving lives of thousands of new-borns in the country. 

He worked hard to establish the Perinatal Society of Sri Lanka for a period of three years bringing together obstetricians, paediatricians and community physicians who are involved in providing perinatal care in Sri Lanka from 1997 onwards and functioned as its founder secretary for two years and President in 2007/2008. 

During his presidency he was able to push hard for several expensive healthcare interventions into the national health system in a focused approach to reduce the stagnant neonatal mortality in Sri Lanka for two decades. This included introduction of surfactant to reduce deaths due to premature lung disease at a cost of Rs. 30,000 per vial, bringing Prostaglandin at a cost of Rs. 55,000 a vial to reduce cardiac deaths, reorganisation with guidelines for screening for retinopathy of prematurity to prevent blindness in preterm infants. 

During the same year a national program of training on neonatal resuscitation was introduced islandwide with a massive commitment of a limited number of paediatricians across the country. This is now inbuilt in the national health system where all new interns are trained before commencement of internship every year and helped prevent deaths and disabilities due to perinatal asphyxia. 

Over a period of five years this with the essential new-born care package helped to reduce NMR to a single digit figure. Subsequently from 2010 he contributed to set up the new-born screening program for congenital hypothyroidism to prevent mental retardation of children with thyroxine deficiency from birth. 

The laboratory at the Nuclear Medicine Unit of Faculty of Medicine Karapitiya is now screening one half of all new-borns i.e. 180,000 born in Sri Lanka. Thyroxine deficiency is the commonest cause for preventable mental retardation in Sri Lanka.   

As President of the Sri Lanka College of Paediatricians in 2014/2015, he was able to introduce the national pulse oximetry screening program for critical congenital heart diseases to prevent cardiac deaths of new-borns. During the same term neonatal resuscitation training before the commencement of internship was made mandatory for all new interns and new training centres were set up in all provinces.  

He also contributes for policymaking at national level as a member of the Technical Advisory Committees on new-born health, nutrition, at the Family Health Bureau and Ministry of Health.  Internationally he is a Technical Advisory Group member (TAG) to the Regional Director of the WHO in SEAR South East Asia Region on maternal and new-born health and Measles and Rubella elimination programmes. 

The perinatal society under the President Dr. Surantha Perera and the council having recognised his outstanding contribution, untiring efforts and commitment over a period of 25 years to improve perinatal care in Sri Lanka decided to award the Lifetime Achievement Award to Prof. Sujeewa Amarasena.