Editor’s Message

Dear Members,
Happy New Year! Puttāṇṭu vāḻttukkaḷ! Suba aluth avuruddak veva!

Our Charity ball and scientific session November 11th 2017 were a huge success!

The morning scientific session was dedicated to the memory of a SLMANA stalwart, and dear friend, Dr Lal Samarasinghe. It was well attended and informative. Keynote speaker, Dr Mahen Wijesuriya addressed the group from his home in Sri Lanka via Skype, and in spite of trepidation on the part of the organizer(s) about the logistics, it went off seamlessly. This was a first for the organization and opens up endless possibilities for the future. In this issue you have access to all the lectures from the session via links. The evening festivities and glamorous Charity Ball were opened by the president of SLMANA, Dr Darshi Sunderam who made an impassioned plea for those in need, especially children with Diabetes in Sri Lanka. Darsh Pieris and Dr Arune Seneviratne worked tirelessly to make the silent auction a success.

Dr Lal Samarasinghe’s dedication to SLMANA was recognized at the ball with the presentation of a post humous plaque to his wife Rayani, children and grandchildren. The plaque was presented by Dr Gnana Sunderam who gave an eloquent and touching tribute to Lal. Lal’s daughter Melanie responded graciously on behalf of the family. Dr Selva Richards was also recognized for her outstanding contributions and dedication to SLMANA. Dr Trika Rajapakse presented her award and mentioned Selva’s penchant for hard work behind the scenes.

Our COZY new venue, the Edison Ballroom was appreciated by all and praised for the quality of cuisine and service. Most importantly, we achieved our goal in raising sufficient funds for Childhood Diabetes in Sri Lanka.

And…..none of it would have been possible if not for the dedication of so many SLMANA members who gave so much, and our dedicated supporters who bought tickets and came to the Ball….

So, Rushika and I hope you enjoy this issue and that you find it informative and interesting. We hope that you are filled with optimism about our mission.

In keeping with the title “newsletter” we would appreciate your input into this, our community missive, as we cannot hope to sustain an effort purely driven by the two of us. Please do send us interesting articles, anecdotes, opinions and news. Let us make this a forum for active discussion, education and dissemination of news for and about us.

Best
Ramona

Ramona Rajapakse, MD, FRCP(UK)
Associate Professor of Medicine
Director of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
Director of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center
Division of Gastroenterology,
Stony Brook University School of Medicine,
Stony Brook, NY 11794
Email: ramonarajapakse@gmail.com

Rushika Conroy, MD, MS
Pediatric Endocrinology and Weight
Management,
Baystate Medical Center, Springfield,
Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics,
Tufts University School of Medicine,
Boston, MA.
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics,
University of Massachusetts Medical School,
Boston, MA.