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 book token 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 successfully completed MRCP examination from the 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 the Chairperson of the Speciality Board in Clinical Pharmacology at the PGIM. She is the President elect of the Sri Lanka Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SLACPT). 

She has delivered over 80 guest lectures on the invitation for SLMA, many academic Colleges, WHO, International Society of Drug Bulletins and global ministerial summits on patient safety. She has presented over 100 research papers at local and international conferences and have over 60 publications in international and local peer reviewed journals in areas of Clinical Pharmacology, toxicology, medical ethics, medical education and autoimmune diseases. She has experience as a Principal investigator and sub investigator for many international clinical trials both in Sri Lanka and in UK in areas of SLE, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

She is a member of the expert committee of the WHO, working on medication safety, participating in many consultative meetings held in WHO Headquarters in Geneva leading up to the launch of medication safety as the 3rd global patient safety challenge, by the WHO, at the 2nd Ministerial summit for patient safety, held in Germany in 2017. 

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 with research grants received over Rs 50 million from the University of Colombo and University Grants Commission and now offers bioequivalence and biowaiver testing for companies that wish to get their products tested for bioequivalence. 

She has successfully completed supervision of 3 PhD projects and currently supervising 7 on going MPhil/PhD and MD projects on topics of quality assurance of pharmaceuticals, developing new treatments for diabetes, investigation of efficacy and safety of herbal products and on medication safety. 

Currently she is the chairperson of the Research committee of the Faculty of Medicine University of Colombo and member of Research and Development Committee of the University of Colombo. She is a member of the Steering Committee Supporting Research Community of the Association of the Commonwealth Universities. She is the current Head of Department of Medical Humanities, having served as the Chairperson of the Behavioural Sciences Stream for 4 years.  She was the Head of Department of Pharmacology for 6 years and is a member of senate of the University of Colombo from 2011.