Annual Research Conference of Faculty of Allied Health Sciences IRCHS 2022 was held as a hybrid event on 31st March 2022 at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. The conference is an annual event of the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences activity calendar and was organized as an international conference this year on the theme, ‘Research and innovations for the advancement of health sciences’.
The event commenced with the inauguration ceremony and was followed by the scientific programme. Snr Prof. Sampath Amaratunge graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and Snr Prof Sudantha Liyanage was present as the Guest of Honour. The ‘Faculty of Allied Health Sciences Oration’ was introduced for the first time this year and it was delivered by Prof. S.S.P Warnakulasuriya, Dean, Faculty of Nursing, University of Colombo on the topic, ‘Work, Health and Wellbeing‘. The scientific programme commenced with the keynote speech on ‘Ethnomedicine Inspired Drug Development – Opportunities and Challenges’ by Prof. M.D.J Wijayabandara, Head, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, FAHS, USJ.
The scientific programme comprised of three parallel symposia supported by international institutes. Symposium A, themed ‘Exploring challenges in future nursing: A vision for back to health’ was supported by the Nethersole School of Nursing, Chinese University of Hong Kong, by facilitating three speakers. Resource persons for Smposium A were, Prof. Cho Lee Wong, Prof. Ho Yu Cheng, Prof. Ka Ming Chow and Prof. Connie Chong. Symposium B was in pharmacy, and was supported by the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) the main international organization for pharmacy. The symposium was titled, ‘Strategies for advancement of pharmaceutical science and practice’ and was resourced by Ms. Forum Gandhi, Prof. Stepahnie Huang, and Mr. Jaime Acosta-Gómez who are affiliated to FIP. The symposium on medical laboratory sciences themed, ‘Rise of the machines: The role of the clinical scientist in the future?’ was resourced by Dr. Akila Katuwawala and Prof. Ashok Gnanasekaran from U.S.A and Malaysia respectively.
IRCHS 2022 received 96 abstracts and all abstracts were subjected to a blinded peer review by two reviewers. Accordingly, 31 oral presentations and 42 poster presentations were selected. Three best oral presentations and three best poster presentations were awarded at the IRCHS 2022 award ceremony. In conjunction to IRCHS 2022, we also organized the ‘Young Innovators Award in Health Sciences 2022’ for the second consecutive time. Among 15 applications, and an extensive review process, the Best Young Innovator in Health Sciences for the year 2022, and the runners up award was selected and presented at the IRCHS 2022.
