Tissa Wijeratne

Wijeratne in 2019

Tissa Wijeratne is a Sri Lankan and Australian neurologist, author, academic, researcher, advocate and one of the founders of World Brain Day.[1][2][3][4]

Education

Wijeratne was born in one of the most rural cities (Bandarawela), Uva Province (the poorest province in Sri Lanka, largely secondary to the ethnic genocide in 1815-1816). He attended a primary school that did not have high academic ambitions for its pupils. He missed out on schooling for nine months while he was still a grade nine student at Kirioruwa School, one of the most rural schools in Uva province to date.

He has been an avid reader since the age of five and managed to finish his entire school library as a year one student. Avid reading made him determined to follow an academic course. He was interested in politics from a young age. He delivered the opening speech at the final rally of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, in front of the world's first female prime minister,[5] the late Sirimavo Bandaranaike, as a primary school student, to a standing ovation in the 1977 Sri Lankan parliamentary election. Wijeratne planned to study economics and politics at university.

Wijeratne completed his high school education at the Bandarawela Central College (also known as the Glendale, commenced as a branch of Royal College, Colombo, during the second world war).[6] As he grew up knowing biology and life sciences at the Bandarawela Central College, he became interested in medicine,[7] and was accepted by the University of Peradeniya, which was interrupted during the 1987–1989 JVP insurrection.[8]

Wijeratne was reborn as a well-known science journalist during this period. He wrote for the science weekly Vidusara, the national newspaper Divaina, the women's weekly Navaliya, and the children's weekly Bindu, then edited by Sybil Wettasinghe. He published over 3000 segments in print media covering brain conditions, agriculture, and global warming with a huge fan base across Sri Lanka. He won the President's award as the best youth national spokesperson in 1989.

Wijeratne first had a career as a young medical student. He was the comperè of major cultural activities at the University of Peradeniya from 1987 to 1994, where national figures in the Sri Lankan music and drama industry appeared. He regularly appeared in television media and national radio media. As a notable old rounder, he went on to perform well at his final year exam with honours in 1995. He was appointed as an intern medical officer to Prof A.H. Sheriffdean for six months, followed by a further six months with Prof. Rezvi Sheriff. Established physicians and surgeons trained him in Sri Lanka. He then created a unique Sri Lankan record as he was appointed as a lecturer in medicine, University of Peredeniya under the mentorship of Prof Nimal Senanayake, a leading neurologist from Sri Lanka.

Research career

Wijeratne was inspired by the original work of his mentor Prof Nimal Senanayake, and continued to learn from his mentor from 1996 to 1999 as a lecturer in medicine at the University of Peradeniya with ample exposure and clinical contribution towards the ongoing work of neurotoxicology under the leadership of Prof Nimal Senanayake.[9]

He met Professor Robert Helme in late 2004 with an agreement to set up the stroke services as a rising star in neurology in 2004 at the Footscray Hospital, Western Health. This was the beginning of Wijeratne's research career. He went on to work in acute stroke care therapies, with landmark contributions in collaboration with his research network across Australia and New Zealand.[10][11]

Contributions to migraine and headache research in Australia

Wijeratne became a key catalyst for resurrecting headache research and advocacy in Australia. During this journey, Prof. Peter Goadsby[12] and Prof Jim Lance[13] mentored him. Wijeratne became the force behind Australia's re-birth of headache society in 2024. He wrote the original constitution, designed the logo, and set up the first website template for the Australia New Zealand Headache Society. He produced the first film on migraine and disability in Australia. His leadership was the key to establishing the first dedicated charity for migraine in 2018.[14][15][16][17]

Wijeratne and colleagues showed the world that migraine is the leading cause of disability in Australia in a landmark paper published in the Lancet in 2018.[18]

He then led the historic first World Brain Day campaign on migraine.[19] Wijeratne rallied the entire world towards a massive awareness campaign. On 22 July 2019, all ABC stations talked about migraines across Australia.[19]

Wijeratne and his colleagues launched the HEAD research group at the same time. Over five thousand headache admissions across 67 emergency departments across Australia and New Zealand were studied in real-time, with zero research funding support. 14 landmark research papers were published out of this work.[20][21][22][23][24][25][26]

Wijeratne et al introduced two new headache syndromes to the SNOOP-10 classification of secondary headaches with a proposal for SNOOP-12 in 2023.[27]

Wijeratne was appointed as the Section Editor for Stroke, Section Editor for Migraine and headache medicine, Encyclopaedia 2023 Edition in 2021.[28]

World Migraine Day

Migraine Foundation launched the first World Migraine Day on 18 June 2023, with the Five Million Steps campaign.[29] A green colour theme was chosen by the hundreds of people with migraine, as the green colour is most pleasing to the migraine-impacted brain.[30][31]

Awards

Wijeratne became the only medical student to win the President's Award as the best All Island Youth Announcer in 1989, with an immediate job offer to train as a full-time broadcast media personal at the Belwood TV Village, Nugaliyadda, Kandy, Sri Lanka in 1989.[32]

Wijeratne was the first neurologist to receive the inaugural Ted Munsatt Award,[33] for his contributions in global neurology education and advocacy, in 2017.

Wijeratne became the first Australian/Sri Lankan neurologist to graduate from the award-winning Donald M Pallatuci advocacy program at the American Academy of Neurology in 2008.[34] He later became an advisor and faculty member for the same program. In 2020, he was the first Australian neurologist to receive the prestigious Kenneth Viste Global Advocate of the Year Award, AAN.[35]

In 2019, Wijeratne became the first Australian physician to win the Priscilla Kincaid-Smith Award, recognising the outstanding achievement of a senior doctor who has undertaken pioneering work in medical practice, education or research, preventative health or patient advocacy.[36][37][38][39]

He became the first Sri Lankan neurologist to receive the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to global neurology, on 26 January 2023.[40][41][42]

References

  1. ↑ "World Brain Day: Summary of Activities and Report".
  2. ↑ "World Brain Day 2021 'Stopping MS': an interview with Tissa Wijeratne and Joanna Laurson-Doube". Communications Biology. 4 (1) 873. 2021-07-22. doi:10.1038/s42003-021-02403-8. ISSN 2399-3642. PMC 8298508. PMID 34294867.
  3. ↑ "Tissa Wijeratne OAM MD PhD FRACP FRCP(Edin) FRCP(London) FAAN (USA) FAHA (USA)FEAN (EAN)".
  4. ↑ Wijeratne, Tissa; Bassetti, Claudio L A.; Grisold, Wolfgang; Dodick, David; Rouleau, Guy; Lewis, Steven L.; Stark, Richard; Freedman, Morris; Guekht, Alla; Gouider, Riadh; Medina, Marco T.; Meshram, Chandrashekhar; Basri, Hamidon; Charway-Felli, Augustina; Abdel Naseer, Maged (2022). "Brain health for all on World Brain Day 2022". The Lancet Neurology. 21 (9): 772–773. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(22)00295-2. PMID 35878622.
  5. ↑ "First Female Prime Minister in the World".
  6. ↑ Glendale: Stories from the Bandarawela Branch of Royal College.
  7. ↑ https://www.bmmv.lk/
  8. ↑ WATKINS, JONATHAN D. "The State, Conflict and the Individual: The Effect of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Insurrections in Sri Lankan on the Mental Welfare of a Population." Medicine, Conflict and Survival, vol. 21, no. 3, 2005, pp. 216–29. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27017660. Accessed 21 Aug. 2023.
  9. ↑ TY - JOUR AU - Senanayake, N PY - 1998/04/01 SP - 22 EP - 9 T1 - Organophosphorus insecticide poisoning VL - 43 JO - The Ceylon medical journal ER -
  10. ↑ Low, E; Crewther, SG; Perre, DL; Ben Ong, Laycock R; Tu, H; Wijeratne, T (2016). "Beyond Neglect: Preliminary Evidence of Retrospective Time Estimation Abnormalities in Non-Neglect Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack Patients". Sci Rep. 6 22598. Bibcode:2016NatSR...622598L. doi:10.1038/srep22598. PMC 4778116. PMID 26940859.
  11. ↑ Campbell, BC; Mitchell, PJ; Kleinig, TJ; Dewey, HM; Churilov, L; Yassi, N; Yan, B; Dowling, RJ; Parsons, MW; Oxley, TJ; Wu, TY; Brooks, M; Simpson, MA; Miteff, F; Levi, CR; Krause, M; Harrington, TJ; Faulder, KC; Steinfort, BS; Priglinger, M; Ang, T; Scroop, R; Barber, PA; McGuinness, B; Wijeratne, T; Phan, TG; Chong, W; Chandra, RV; Bladin, CF; Badve, M; Rice, H; de Villiers, L; Ma, H; Desmond, PM; Donnan, GA; Davis, SM (2015). "Endovascular therapy for ischemic stroke with perfusion-imaging selection". N Engl J Med. 372 (11): 1009–18. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1414792. PMID 25671797.
  12. ↑ "'Playing for the big time' to help migraine sufferers".
  13. ↑ "Professor James Lance (1926–2019) AO, CBE".
  14. ↑ https://migrainefoundation.org.au/
  15. ↑ https://www.steps4migraine.com/
  16. ↑ https://anzheadachesociety.org/
  17. ↑ https://www.archhub.org/
  18. ↑ Wijeratne, T; Grisold, W; Dodick, D; Carroll, W (Oct 2019). "World Brain Day 2019: migraine, the painful truth". Lancet Neurol. 18 (10): 914. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(19)30281-9. PMID 31345666.
  19. 1 2 "World Brain Day 2019 - ABC News Breakfast". 22 July 2019.
  20. ↑ Wijeratne, T; Kuan, WS; Kelly, AM; Chu, KH; Kinnear, FB; Keijzers, G; Body, R; Karamercan, MA; Klim, S; Kamona, S; Graham, CA; Roberts, T; Horner, D; Laribi, S (2022). "Migraine in the Emergency Department: A Prospective Multinational Study of Patient Characteristics, Management, and Outcomes". Neuroepidemiology. 56 (1): 32–40. doi:10.1159/000520548. hdl:10072/417716. PMID 35021181.
  21. ↑ Beck, S; Kinnear, FB; Maree Kelly, A; Chu, KH; Sen Kuan, W; Keijzers, G; Body, R; Karamercan, MA; Klim, S; Wijeratne, T; Kamona, S; Graham, CA; Roberts, T; Horner, D; Laribi, S (2022). "Clinical presentation and assessment of older patients presenting with headache to emergency departments: A multicentre observational study". Australas J Ageing. 41 (1): 126–137. doi:10.1111/ajag.12999. PMID 34570422.
  22. ↑ Lim JH, Karimi L, Wijeratne T. An Evaluation of Medication Prescribing Patterns for Acute Migraine in the Emergency Department: A Scoping Review. J Clin Med. 2021 Mar 12;10(6):1191 PMID 33809194
  23. ↑ Pellatt, RAF; Kamona, S; Chu, K; Sweeny, A; Kuan, WS; Kinnear, FB; Karamercan, MA; Klim, S; Wijeratne, T; Graham, CA; Body, R; Roberts, T; Horner, D; Laribi, S; Keijzers, G; Kelly, AM (Oct 2021). "The Headache in Emergency Departments study: Opioid prescribing in patients presenting with headache. A multicenter, cross-sectional, observational study". Headache. 61 (9): 1387–1402. doi:10.1111/head.14217. PMID 34632592.
  24. ↑ Kelly, AM; Kuan, WS; Chu, KH; Kinnear, FB; Keijzers, G; Karamercan, MA; Klim, S; Wijeratne, T; Kamona, S; Graham, CA; Body, R; Roberts, T; Horner, D; Laribi, S (Nov 2021). "Epidemiology, investigation, management, and outcome of headache in emergency departments (HEAD study)-A multinational observational study". Headache. 61 (10): 1539–1552. doi:10.1111/head.14230. PMID 34726783.
  25. ↑ Roberts, T; Horner, DE; Chu, K; Than, M; Kelly, AM; Klim, S; Kinnear, F; Keijzers, G; Karamercan, MA; Wijeratne, T; Kamona, S; Kuan, WS; Graham, CA; Body, R; Laribi, S (Nov 2022). "Thunderclap headache syndrome presenting to the emergency department: an international multicentre observational cohort study". Emerg Med J. 39 (11): 803–809. doi:10.1136/emermed-2021-211370. PMID 35144978.
  26. ↑ Wijeratne, T; Jenkins, B; Stark, RJ; Sun-Edelstein, C (2023). "Assessing and managing medication overuse headache in Australian clinical practice". BMJ Neurol Open. 5 (1) e000418. doi:10.1136/bmjno-2023-000418. PMC 10255228. PMID 37304309.
  27. ↑ Wijeratne, T; Wijeratne, C; Korajkic, N; Bird, S; Sales, C; Riederer, F (2023). "Secondary headaches - red and green flags and their significance for diagnostics". eNeurologicalSci. 32 100473. doi:10.1016/j.ensci.2023.100473. PMC 10339125. PMID 37456555.
  28. ↑ "Sri Lankan professor in Australia appointed as an editor of a world-renowned encyclopedia".
  29. ↑ "The large social and economic toll migraines have on Australia | 7NEWS". YouTube.
  30. ↑ "Steps4Migraine: Walk for World Migraine Day". 22 October 2023.
  31. ↑ "World's 1st Migraine Day will be launched on 18 June in Melbourne under the initiative of a Lankan professor".
  32. ↑ "The Journey of One Neurologist from Sri Lanka to Melbourne".
  33. ↑ "Ted Munsat Award". wfneurology.org. Retrieved 2023-08-20.
  34. ↑ Wijeratne, T; DePold Hohler, A (Jan 2013). "Residency training: Advocacy training in neurology: lessons from the Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Forum". Neurology. 80 (1): e1–3. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e31827b19e1. PMID 23267034.
  35. ↑ "Prof. Tissa Wijeratne receives two awards from the American Academy of Neurology, becoming the first Australian to win both these awards".
  36. ↑ "Past Winners /".
  37. ↑ "Leading for the west". 3 December 2019.
  38. ↑ "Tissa Wijeratne".
  39. ↑ https://twitter.com/eyerait58/status/1198395812704686080
  40. ↑ "Home". Tissa Wijeratne. Retrieved 2023-08-20.
  41. ↑ "Awards | Western Health Chronic Disease Alliance". whcda.wh.org.au. 2023-03-14. Retrieved 2023-08-20.
  42. ↑ "Prof. Tissa Wijeratne awarded Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM)". wfneurology.org. Retrieved 2023-08-20.
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