The Fourteenth Annual Academic Sessions of the College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka 2009
Published date: October 7, 2010The fourteenth Annual Academic Sessions of the College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka (CCPSL) was held from the 9th to 12th September 2009 at the Hotel Taj Samudra, Colombo 3. The chief guest was Dr. Ferdosi Rustom Mehta, WHO Representative for Sri Lanka. Dr Sujatha Samarakoon, Dr Dula de Silva, Dr. Pushpa Jayawardana and Dr E. Sundaralingam were awarded Fellowships of the College in recognition of their outstanding services to the field of Community Medicine in Sri Lanka.
A pre-congress workshop was held on searching for the best evidence: Hands–on workshop for Community Physicians. It was conducted by Dr Kumara Mendis of the University of Sydney, New South Wales
Academic sessions included a symposium on improving neonatal care to achieve MDG 4. Dr Chithramale de Silva, Consultant Community Physician (CCP), Family Health Bureau opened the symposium by presenting an introductory presentation on “What is MDG 4 and where are we” which was followed by presentations from Dr. Dhammika Rowel, CCP of the Family Health Bureau on newborn care programmes in Sri Lanka and from Prof. Sujeewa Amarasena on recent advances to meet the challenges. Dr Ayesha Lokubalasooriya, CCP, Family Health Bureau (FHB) presented the public health programmatic issues in relation to achieving MDG 4. This was followed by guest lectures on the influenza pandemic by Dr Suzanne Westman and fertility change and its implications on maternal and child health by Dr Loshan Moonasinghe, CCP, FHB and current status of maternal mortality in Sri Lanka: challenges for future by Deepika Attygalle, CCP, FHB. Fifteen free papers were presented with poster presentations. The annual dinner was held at the Hotel Taj Samudra.