Dr Buddhika Weerasundera

Associate Professor in Rural and Remote Medical Education (NT)

College of Medicine and Public Health

+61 8 8205 0263

buddhika.weerasundera@flinders.edu.au

Royal Darwin Hospital

GPO Box 2100, ADELAIDE, SA, 5001

Graduating in Medicine (MBBS) from the North Colombo Medical College, Sri Lanka (1994), Buddhika obtained the Doctor of Medicine (MD) in Forensic Medicine in 2002 after six years of post-graduate training in Sri Lanka, Australia (the Victorian Institute of Medicine) and the United Kingdom (University of Sheffield). She also obtained the Diploma in Medical Jurisprudence (DMJ) in the UK. Her work for the past 25 years involved cadaver teaching in the disciplines of Anatomy (as a teacher of Anatomy) and Pathology(as a Forensic Pathologist)

Qualifications

January 2009: Member,Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine (FFLM),United Kingdom

October 2005: Certificate of Teaching in Higher Education (CTHE), United Kingdom

January 2004: Diploma in Medical Jurisprudence (DMJ), United Kingdom

November 2002: Board Certification as a Specialist in Forensic Medicine, Sri Lanka

December 2001: MD (Forensic Medicine), University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

September 1999: Diploma in Legal Medicine (DLM), University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

June 1994: MBBS, North Colombo Medical College, Sri Lanka

Honours, awards and grants

Teaching Excellence Award for contributing to teaching Flinders Medical Students (NTMP and Adelaide), presented by the Flinders Medical Students Society in recognition of her teaching commitments (2019).
Chevening Scholarship awarded by the British Council of Sri Lanka in 2003 to specialize in Forensic Pathology in the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
Scholarship awarded by the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine in 2002 for post- graduate training at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, Melbourne, Australia.

Key responsibilities

   Teaching and Curriculum development: key role in the NTMP in the smooth transition from a Problem Based Learning (PBL) curriculum to a Programmatic Assessment for Learning through Team Based Learning (TBL ) in 2016
    Contribution to TBL curriculum: Preparation of study material, preparation and conducting Lectures, Practicals, assessments including multiple-choice questions, structured answer questions, ‘Drop-In’ sessions, Clarification sessions and Application sessions
The teaching includes year 1, 2 students of the NTMP on KHI topics and year 3 students on Health and Professional Society (HPS- Ethics).
    Learning Coach for students in years 1-4:supporting students,ensuring that they are compliant with their course work, assignment deadliness and in their communications with their teachers through out their four years in the programme, since 2018.
    Development of the Department of Anatomy in the NTMP, planning its curriculum and teaching/learning methods and enhancing its supporting infrastructure in terms of laboratory equipment and prosected specimens. Sourcing specimens and developing a fully functional Pathology Museum in the NTMP.