Hemantha Senanayake. Source: https://endometriosis-adenomyosis.asia/details_boardmember_member_10.html
University of Colombo. Photo: Cossde ( talk ), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UoC_College_House.jpg)
University of Colombo. Photo: Cossde ( talk ), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UoC_College_House.jpg)
(A co-authored evaluation of experience with a locally ada...)
A co-authored evaluation of experience with a locally adapted Safe Childbirth Checklist in two Sri Lankan tertiary-care settings.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30342490/
2018
educator gynecologist obstetrician
Hemantha Malinath Senanayake was born on November 15, 1953, in Kalutara, Sri Lanka, to Tyrus Edmund Senanayake and Angelina Kusumawathi Abeywickrema. His professional life developed within Sri Lanka's post-independence medical and university system, where obstetrics and gynecology combined hospital care, specialist training, and clinical research.
Senanayake received the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of Colombo in 1978. The university, founded in 1921 and descended from the Ceylon Medical College established in 1870, is Sri Lanka's oldest higher-education institution; its Faculty of Medicine is the country's pioneer medical faculty.
He subsequently obtained postgraduate specialist qualifications including an MS, FRCS (Edinburgh), FRCOG, and fellowship of the Sri Lanka College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. These qualifications placed his work within the British-derived postgraduate traditions that have shaped specialist medical education in Sri Lanka and the wider Commonwealth.
Senanayake joined the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Colombo and became a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 2003. He also served as chairman of the Faculty's Research Ethics Committee from 2008 to 2010. The Faculty's academic work is closely connected with De Soysa Hospital for Women, a Colombo maternity institution founded in 1879 that became an important center for maternal care, midwifery training, medical education, and obstetric research.
From 2004 to 2006, Senanayake worked as a consultant obstetrician and gynecologist with the North West London Health Trust in Harrow, England. The North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, established in 1999, operated major hospitals including Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow and served as part of the National Health Service's regional hospital system.
His research and writing have addressed cesarean-section practice, antenatal iron supplementation, reproductive health, fetal anomalies, postpartum contraception, labor companionship, safe-childbirth checklists, maternal mortality, endometriosis, and person-centered maternity care. He has also contributed to international professional discussions and delivered invited lectures in several countries, including a plenary lecture at the 2000 FIGO World Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Senanayake later became emeritus professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Colombo. He has held leadership roles in regional and national professional organizations, including the Asian Society of Endometriosis and Adenomyosis and the Endometriosis and Adenomyosis Association of Sri Lanka.
Senanayake has contributed to research on safe childbirth, including studies of the World Health Organization Safe Childbirth Checklist in Sri Lankan tertiary-care settings. This work examined how an internationally developed patient-safety tool could be adapted to local maternity services.
He has contributed to professional and public discussion of maternal mortality in Sri Lanka, arguing for improvements in clinical care, health-system organization, and grassroots health services.
He founded the Endometriosis and Adenomyosis Association of Sri Lanka and became president of the Asian Society of Endometriosis and Adenomyosis, helping develop regional professional attention to these gynecological conditions.
He served as congress chair for the Asian Congress on Endometriosis in 2021 and 2025, bringing together specialist discussion of endometriosis and adenomyosis in an Asian clinical and research context.
(A co-authored examination of participatory approaches to ...)
2026(A qualitative study of the psychological responses and co...)
2006(A prospective comparative study examining the feasibility...)
2005(A co-authored study examining Sri Lankan practitioners' k...)
2017(A co-authored quality-improvement study concerning eviden...)
2026(A co-authored analysis of persistent maternal-mortality c...)
2022(A co-authored observational study of implementing the Wor...)
2015(A co-authored study evaluating whether a simple education...)
2010(A co-authored retrospective cohort study examining advers...)
2024(A co-authored evaluation of experience with a locally ada...)
2018(A study of postpartum contraceptive knowledge, attitudes,...)
2006(A co-authored study using women's perceptions and stakeho...)
2025(A letter addressing the political, health-system, and com...)
2018Senanayake's professional writings and public lectures emphasize evidence-based maternity care, ethical clinical practice, respectful treatment of women, and the reduction of preventable maternal deaths. His work supports the view that improvements in maternal health require both sound clinical systems and attention to the experiences and participation of women and families.
Senanayake has been a fellow of the Sri Lanka College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and has participated in professional organizations concerned with obstetrics, gynecology, perinatal medicine, endometriosis, and adenomyosis.
He served as president of the Perinatal Society of Sri Lanka in 2011–2012 and has been associated with its editorial and professional activities. He is also the founding president of the Endometriosis and Adenomyosis Association of Sri Lanka and president of the Asian Society of Endometriosis and Adenomyosis, organizations that promote specialist knowledge, research, and clinical cooperation in reproductive health.
Fellow; chaired science activities and academic affairs in 2010.
Sri Lanka College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists , Sri Lanka
President.
Perinatal Society of Sri Lanka , Sri Lanka
2011 - 2012
Founder president.
Endometriosis and Adenomyosis Association of Sri Lanka , Sri Lanka
President.
Asian Society of Endometriosis and Adenomyosis , Sri Lanka
Senanayake married Samanthi Priyanganee Premaratne on April 2, 1994. They have four children: Rangitha Chayithri, Rashantha Varuni, Kushara Tharushi, and Sarisha Kushmandi. His professional and family connections include the obstetrics and gynecology community at the University of Colombo, where Samanthi Premaratne has also been identified as a medical professional and co-author.
Married Senanayake on April 2, 1994; she is also identified as a medical professional and co-author in obstetrics and gynecology research.
