Countdown begins! Matriarch of medical faculties soon to be 150
Now and then (inset) when the Colombo Medical School began within the General Hospital
They will be coming home…….hundreds and hundreds nurtured and nourished at this ‘Maha Gedera’ down Kynsey Road, through whose portals they have ventured out not only to the far corners of this country but also the world, will return to pay homage to the matriarch, turning 150 in February 2020 (next year).
Exuding an old world charm with its iconic clock tower standing tall along with lots of modern touches, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Colombo will welcome with open arms not prodigals, but men and women who have gone forth to bestow healing and succour on thousands of people.
As the countdown begins for the 150th celebrations, fresh-faced medical students walk around the faculty buildings and its premises, while construction activity is underway in earnest – a 17-storey building, refurbishment of the clock tower, greening of the quadrangle and stone-paving of the internal pathways.
“We are the second oldest functioning medical school in Sri Lanka and perhaps in the whole of Asia,” Dr. Prasad Katulanda tells the media, from a head-table at which sit eminent past and present Professors and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo, Senior Prof. Jennifer Perera.
Over these long years, more than 10,000 doctors have passed out from the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo, it is learnt.
As the forerunner of university education in the country, for nearly a century it had been the “only” medical school here. Turning back the pages of time reveals interesting detail – Ceylonese students were heading to the Bengal Medical Faculty, India, the oldest medical school in South Asia, by 1839. By the late 1840s, an American medical missionary, Samuel Green, had set up a small private medical school in Manipai in the north, which is not functioning now.
When in the 1860s, Colonial Surgeon Dr. James Loos had to report on why there was an exodus of men, women and children from the Wanni (a web search reveals that the country had been hit by yaws, a contagious bacterial disease), he had suggested that medical facilities should be made available throughout the country which, in turn, required a system of medical education.
The august institution that is the Faculty of Medicine was born within the Colombo General Hospital in 1870 with three teachers and 25 students, christened as the Colombo Medical School and opened by then Governor of Ceylon, Sir Hercules Robinson. Its first Principal was Dr. Loos.
As time passed by, it moved from the arms of the General Hospital, not going too far though, only across the road, when Mudaliyar Samson Rajapakse in 1875, gifted the land on which it stands today.
Renamed the Ceylon Medical College in 1880, it is in memory of its second Principal, Dr. E.I. Koch (1875) that the Koch Memorial Clock Tower had risen towards the sky in 1881.
A ‘red-letter year’ had been 1892, when women gained admission to the medical college with the first licentiate being Alice De Boer.
The rest, of course, is history – the founding of the Ceylon University College which was entrusted with the task of conducting the first professional examination for medical students in 1921; another name-change as the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ceylon, consisting of the six departments of Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Surgery in 1942 and finally being re-christened as the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo in 1967.
Interestingly, the Anatomy Block built in 1913 is the ‘oldest’ building and it was the Sunday Times which exclusively covered its centenary celebrations back in 2013.
Developing and expanding in leaps and bounds, not only in the sphere of academic excellence but also the research being undertaken within its walls, it is considered the “leader” in medical training, high-impact locally relevant research and healthcare services in the country, says Prof. Saroj Jayasinghe.
Whereas earlier there were only six departments, now the Faculty of Medicine boasts of 19 including Medical Education, Medical Humanities (probably a first in South Asia), Allied Health Sciences, Family Medicine and Anaesthesiology & Critical Care.
It is also home to the Human Genetics Unit, the Sports & Exercise Medicine Unit, the Health & Wellness Unit, the Virtual Learning Centre, the Skills Laboratory and many more.
Other feathers in its cap are the establishment of the SARC-CCT (South Asian Regional Consortium-Centre for Combating Tobacco) in the faculty this year and earlier the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centres for Medical Education and Training & Research in Occupational Health.
A vibrant Publishing House pulsates within its walls where students and academics can publish their writings, while the Faculty of Medicine also nurtures and preserves what is believed to be one of the oldest Medical Libraries in Southeast Asia now modernised too.
While all those who pass through the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo, get the essential clinical exposure and training at premier centres of excellence such as the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL), the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) for Children, the Castle Street and De Soysa Hospitals for Women, the National Eye Hospital, the National Institute of Mental Health, Angoda, and the National Cancer Institute, Maharagama, and training from the laboratory and other staff of the Health Ministry, they themselves become the expertise providers to these and more hospitals across the country.
“Our staff, meanwhile, provides consultant services to the ministry without payment and manages wards at the NHSL, the LRH and DMH,” says Prof. Jayasinghe, pointing out that they also coordinate a renal transplant programme and provide judicial medical services to the ministry. This is while more honorary services in the form of preventive and health promotion in the Kotte area and in the fields of pathology, microbiology, parasitology and genetics are also extended by the faculty.
| Time to celebrate | |
 The head-table: (From the right) Emeritus Prof. A.H. Sheriffdeen, Emeritus Prof. Sanath Lamabadusuriya, Senior Prof. Jennifer Perera, Prof. Saroj Jayasinghe, Emeritus Prof. Rezvi Sheriff, Emeritus Prof. Harshalal Seneviratne, Dr. Prasad Katulanda and Dr. Priyankara Jayawardena. Pix by Priyantha Wickramaarachchi Set amidst three acres, the events of the 150th celebrations will be on home-ground with the exception of the inauguration and banquet being held at hotels and a medical exhibition for the public at the University of Colombo premises off Reid Avenue. “We are planning a series of events to commemorate this important milestone in the history of our medical school and the country and to align ourselves to meet the challenges of the future,” says Dr. Prasad Katulanda, who along with Prof. Saroj Jayasinghe, is a Co-chair of the Colombo Medical Congress. The Colombo Medical Congress with the theme, ‘Medicine in Sri Lanka – The Legacy & the Future’ is scheduled for February 13-15, with the exhibition ‘Medivision’ following after, from March 30 to April 5. The three-pronged theme of the congress will cover – A Legacy: Historical developments relating to health in Sri Lanka; The Present: Current research interests in the faculty; and Our Future: Advances, especially research advances by our alumni and former teachers. “The congress, expected to be one of the biggest medical conferences in the country, has already attracted many alumni from all over the world who will contribute academically and inspire future generations of doctors and medical students,” says Dr. Katulanda. “We expect at least a thousand registrants,” he says, appreciative that the faculty’s alumni association, the Colombo Medical School Alumni Association (CoMSAA), is collaborating with them in these activities, while Prof. Jayasinghe adds that all alumni coming from overseas as speakers are funding their own air-tickets and hotel stays. Prof. Jayasinghe sends out a final call to those interested in submitting abstracts that the deadline is November 15 and more information may be accessed from the website: colombomedicalcongress.org
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| The trailblazer | |
| The Faculty of Medicine, Colombo, has many firsts and achievements. The first kidney, liver and bone marrow transplants had been performed by Consultant Doctors from the faculty, while much of the research on tropical diseases such as malaria, leptospirosis, filariasis, melioidosis and leishmaniasis has emerged from here and are ongoing. More achievements unfold – the sequencing of the Sri Lanka Genome and the implementation of Genomic Medicine in a clinical setting; the introduction of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART – simply called test-tube babies); and a major role in drug regulation, with Prof. Senaka Bibile being an alumnus. The ‘high chairs’ of several institutions such as the University Grants Commission (UGC), the University of Colombo and medical faculties are occupied by its alumni. “We have one of the most prolific research outputs of all Sri Lankan universities and have formed links with prestigious universities such as Oxford and Harvard,” says Prof. Saroj Jayasinghe, adding that they are considered the “mother” not only by virtue of age but because they have led the field in introducing novel educational methods and shown the way to improve the quality of education. |