Professor Priyadarshani Galappatthy

Professor Priyadarshani Galappatthy graduated from Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo in 1991 with second-class honours upper division pass with Distinction in Paediatrics and Professor SS Ratnam prize for Gynaecology. She joined the Department of Pharmacology as a lecturer in 1993 and obtained MD in General Medicine in 1997 with board certification as a specialist in General Medicine in 1999. She had training in Clinical Pharmacology and General Medicine at the North Staffordshire University Hospital, UK. She passed the MRCP examination of Royal College of Physicians of London in UK in 2000 and obtained Diploma in Medical Toxicology from University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff in 2001. She received the fellowship of Ceylon College of Physicians in 2011 and the fellowship of Royal College of Physicians of London in 2013.

She was accredited as a teacher in Higher education by the Staff and Education Development Association (SEDA) in the United Kingdom in 1999. She is currently President of the Sri Lanka Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SLACPT) and was the Chairperson of the Speciality Board in Clinical Pharmacology at the PGIM. 

She has delivered 6 orations, SC Paul oration (2 occasions) and Prof NDW Lionel oration of SLMA, Prof Senaka Bibile oration (2 occasions) and John Autoin oration of Society of Pharmacovigilance of India.  Her research interests and publications are in the areas of clinical pharmacology, medication safety, toxicology, medical ethics, medical education and autoimmune diseases. She has experience as a principal investigator and sub investigator in many international clinical trials both in Sri Lanka and in UK in areas of SLE, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. She is a co-editor of The Sri Lanka Prescriber. 

She has contributed to the third WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge Medication Without Harm from 2016, participating in many consultative meetings held in WHO Headquarters in Geneva and was a speaker at the launch of Challenge, at the 2nd Ministerial summit for patient safety, in Germany in 2017.  She is currently serving as a WHO consultant on medication safety attached to the Patient Safety Flagship Unit of the World Health Organisation headquarters,  Geneva Switzerland contributing to development of many technical resources on medication safety and promoting implementation of medication safety Challenge  globally and providing country support. She was instrumental in developing the national action plan on medication safety for Sri Lanka, which was launched through the Directorate of Healthcare Quality and safety of the Ministry of Health in 2021. Many activities are currently being implemented.

She developed capacity for conducting PhD projects in the Department of pharmacology by developing a research laboratory for the conduct of bioequivalence and biowaiver studies securing many research grants. The laboratory now offers facilities for conducting bioequivalence and biowaiver studies and quality testing of pharmaceuticals. 

She has successfully completed supervision of 5 PhD projects and currently supervising 4 PhD projects.  The topics of projects include quality assurance of pharmaceuticals, developing new treatments for diabetes, investigation of efficacy and safety of herbal products and medication safety. 

She was Head of Department of Medical Humanities for 3 years, Chairperson of the Behavioural Sciences Stream for 4 years and the Head of Department of Pharmacology for 6 years. She is a member of senate of the University of Colombo from 2011.