Dr. Yamuna N. Rajapakse

Dr. Yamuna Rajapakse graduated from the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura in 2003 with Second Class Upper Division Honours , and  distinctions in Physiology, Biochemistry, Parasitology, Microbiology, Pathology, Forensic Medicine, Community Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynaecology. She was also awarded the Dr. K B L Perera Gold Medal  in Physiology and the Professor Kingsley De Silva Gold Medal in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

She trained as Registrar in General Medicine at the Professorial Medical Unit Peradeniya and obtained her MD Medicine in 2011 from the University of Colombo. Her post MD specialist training was in Respiratory Medicine at the Central Chest Clinic, Colombo and National Hospital Sri Lanka (NHSL). Thereafter, she completed her postgraduate foreign training at the department of Thoracic Medicine, Royal Adelaide Hospital, Australia, where she developed a special interest in Interventional Pulmonology and Lung Cancer. Following her post MD training she was Board Certified as a Consultant in Respiratory Medicine in 2014, after which, she served as Acting Consultant Chest Physician at the Central Chest Clinic, MRI, Colombo. Dr. Yamuna Rajapakse joined the Department of Anatomy as Senior Lecturer in 2016.

She was instrumental in introducing EndoBronchial UltraSound (EBUS) technology – a minimally invasive method of visualizing, biopsying and treating the mediastinum from within the bronchial tree – to Sri Lanka in 2014, and with the assistance of the Consultant Chest Physicians at NHSL started up the first EBUS unit in the country at NHSL. The same year she started up the first ever multidisciplinary lung cancer team at NHSL.

Her research interests are mainly in the areas of Lung cancer genetics and interventional pulmonology. She was Awarded the E M Wijerama award for the best presentation at the Young Physicians Forum for the year 2014 for her presentation of “The Changing Face of Lung Cancer –  Advances  in Staging and Management” and the Professor K Rajasuriya award for Best Poster at the Annual Academic Sessions of the Ceylon College of Physicians 2016 for the poster on “The first eighteen months’ experience of Endobronchial Ultrasound in Sri Lanka”.