During this unprecedented COVID-19 public health and economic crisis, on June 7th, 2020 the Sri Lanka Foundation partnered with three Expert Medical Professionals from our very own community, Dr. Deepathi Jayasekera, Clinical Professor in Infectious Disease, Dr. Himanshu Wickramasinghe, Consultant Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Dr. Lasika Seneviratne, Consultant Hematologist/ Oncologist to address essential issues and share their knowledge with our community.

Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the United States, Rodney Perera was our special guest, and in his speech, he thanked the Sri Lanka Foundation for the selection of expert medical professionals to generate awareness of the Pandemic by organizing this Webinar.

No doubt it captured the attention of the audience as the purpose was to give the message to our community to be Safe, Healthy, and Well informed.

Many concerned and great questions were pouring in from the attendees which were answered by our speakers. We received many positive comments from our listeners thanking and applauding our panelist for a job well done and said looking forward to our next Webinar on COVID-19.

We extend our sincere gratitude to the Doctors and the Attendees, our SLF News email blast will be updated with appropriate resources and webinars on COVID-19 for our community.



Please see the feedback we received from our attendees worldwide:

“The discussion was extremely insightful and hence useful. Always proud to be associated with activities of the Sri Lanka Foundation that continue to bring together the Sri Lankan community in the United States. I salute the capable Sri Lankan American professionals for bringing honor to our beloved motherland. Let us continue to work together for more useful events and discussions for the betterment of our community. I thank Dr. Walter Jayasinghe and the team of the Sri Lanka Foundation for the opportunity provided to us all”.

E. Rodney M. Perera
Ambassador
Embassy of Sri Lanka
Washington DC
|

Dear Keshini,

Thank you for organizing this event. I listened to part of it, but my router here had some issues due to heavy rain and lightning.

I shall be grateful if you would forward my thanks and best wishes to the experts who did an excellent job.

Would you be kind enough to pass this message and email to them. I am particularly keen to speak to Himanshu and Lasika both of whom I had the pleasure to teach.

Kind regards,
Dr Saroj Jayasinghe
MBBS (Col), MD (Col), MRCP (UK), MD (Bristol), PhD (Col), FRCP (Lond), FCCP
Chair Professor of Medicine University of Colombo
Former Head, Department of Medical Humanities, Faculty of Medicine
Hon. Consultant Physician, National Hospital of Sri Lanka, Colombo
saroj@clinmed.cmb.ac.lk
sarojoffice@yahoo.com



Hi Keshini: The SLF webinar on COVID-19 was very well organized and was highly informative. The speakers shared several real-life examples from their daily experiences. The hands own work of Dr. Himanshu Wickramasinghe, with the sickest patients in the ICU, was fascinating, as was the work of Dr. Deepthi Jayasekera, who is caring for patients in several area hospitals. His masterly responses to questions were helpful and impressive. Dr. Lasika Seneviratne’s vivid explanations of multiple complications that can arise due to abnormal coagulation made one appreciate that COVID is not only a respiratory disease affecting the lungs. SLF should be complimented for organizing such an impressive seminar. It was a creative way for the Foundation to connect meaningfully with the community during these trying times. I know it takes a considerable effort to make it happen, and you and your team should be proud of yourself for a job well done. Dr. Jay, I am sure, is very happy that he has such a great team to implement his vision. Well done.

Thanks. Nandi.
Nandasiri (Nandi) Jasentuliyana
President Emeritus, International Institute of Space Law
Former Deputy Director-General, United Nations, and
Director, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs



Dr. Lasika,

I wanted to congratulate you on your presentation today. It was one of the best seminars I attended. I have been following the COVID research and have attended many virtual seminars on COVID. All the speakers spoke lucidly with excellent clinical and research information and without too much self-promotions, followed by a robust Q&A.

I like this format and would not be surprised if this may be the format of the future CME replacing our usual live attendance. This Corona crisis is upending traditional business and practices with telemedicine and other forms of doing remote communication and new business burgeoning opportunities.

Please congratulate Himansu and Deepak. 

Best,
Nage 



Dear Keshini Auntie,

I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy in these strange times. I attended the Zoom webinar today. It is a really great idea to hold these webinars monthly and is a true service to the community during this uncertain period! Since you were recording the meeting, will you be disseminating it on the SLF website, YouTube, and other social media so that more people will be able to benefit from the information at the meeting?

I especially enjoyed Dr. Wickaramasinghe and Dr. Seneviratne’s presentations, and hope that they return for future webinars! They spoke quite clearly and explained the issues in an effective and organized way. They used technical terms while also clarifying what they meant, without relying on jargon, and so could be understood by both an academic and non-academic audience. Dr. Wickaramasinghe and Dr. Seneviratne are incredibly useful panelists for webinars like this that are aimed towards a wider community!

Would it be possible to have a mental health professional, educator, and/or a child psychologist in future webinars? It would be useful for parents, or even children, to ask questions on how to handle altered family dynamics, behavioral issues, and deal with educational changes during shelter-in-place.

Further, as an Asian American and Ethnic Studies scholar, I see how prevalent myths and falsehoods about the virus have spread through social media in the last few months, many of them racist and anti-Chinese. I hope that as part of the next meeting agenda, panelists address myths, falsehoods, and rumors about the pandemic as detailed by the WHO at this link here and elsewhere. For next time, could you have the panelists include sources? It would be useful to check out the articles and papers for further information after the webinar.

This is a wonderful way for our community to connect and ask questions about the issues important to them. It is a very frightful time for all of us, and having an opportunity for community members to learn and assuage their fears and uncertainties is vital. Thank you so much again for organizing this!

Please stay safe and healthy,
Mihiri
Mihiri Tillakaratne
A.B. Harvard College
M.A. Asian American Studies | University of California, Los Angeles
PhD Candidate, Ethnic Studies | University of California, Berkeley



Hi Ms. Keshini,

The Webinar hosted by SLF was phenomenal. My mom and I attended it from start to finish and I also got the opportunity to have some of my burning questions answered.

The doctors explained everything thoroughly and the discussion was lively. The pulmonology, infectious disease, and hematology tie-ins were well orchestrated. Congratulations on the success!

Looking forward to your future events too.

Best regards,
Zainab Ifthikar- Medical Faculty, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia



Hi Keshini,

Please thank all those involved for hosting a well organized webinar. Clearly, everyone had invested much time and resources into this and it was well received and appreciated.

As you have asked, I do want to provide some comments about the event.

What I liked
* Obviously, these doctors are very well informed and I appreciated their candid opinions on the situation
* All gave great presentations, with useful information. I’m sure everyone learned something new during the webinar as I also did
* Discussion was moderated well, zero distractions, and effectively managed.
* As you have said, Zoom meetings can quickly become derailed by unmuted lines and poor audio quality. This was not the case.

Areas that we can improve:
* Some parts of the presentation were too scientific for the intended audience. I was able to follow along just fine, but I know of others who were not able to. In particular, I remember 2-3 slides going to the cellular level of how COVID-19 infects. In order to keep everyone’s focus, we should stick to communicating in layman’s terms.
* Let the audience know that their audio/video have been automatically turned OFF. Even I was struggling to figure out whether my audio/video was on as the Zoom meeting did not look the same as what I typically see in my work meetings.
* For potential topics for the next discussion, I think most people in the audience would have the same questions as what members of the SLF team would have. If you all have specific questions that you would like answered, that would be a good starting point. In addition, some guidance on what the panelists are doing themselves on a personal daily basis. I appreciated Dr. Deepthi stating what he does, such as taking Vitamin C/D, zinc sulfate, etc. This was the one thing that I saw Shanuki write down, so I know it was important to her and probably others also.
Please reach out if you’d like to discuss further.

Thanks,
Shanaka




Hello Himanshu/Deepthi and Lasika,

Just a quick note to tell you that I learned a lot from your webinar on Sunday.

All three of you came through as being professional, knowledgeable and believable.

Thanks for sharing your expertise with Sri Lankans and others worldwide.

Best wishes,
Jayam Rutnam
Founder of Sri Lanka America Association of Southern California



Hello Keshini
Many thanks for your email, look forward to receiving the recording/slides. It was an insightful presentation by US/SL amazingly talented Medical Specialists.

I receive updates from Jayam but not a member of SLF news, how do I become a member?

Best regards,
Tessa Dissanayake




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