Dr. Bawantha Gamage and his team have been recognised as the Best Surgical Team 2018 for implementing the modified Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (mERAS) protocol in managing patients with colorectal cancer in Sri Lanka at the award ceremony held by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in Chennai, India recently.
Dr. Gamage is a senior lecturer of the Department of Surgery of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura,
The BMJ felicitates individuals and teams that demonstrated commitment to the practice of medicine and surgery in the South Asian region annually.
Over 1,500 nominations were submitted from nine countries in 2018 and 435 semi-finalists were shortlisted before selecting the finalists for the 10 awards in different categories. The only award in surgery was extended to the Best Surgical Team of the year.
Dr. Gamage’s team included Dr. Malith Nandasena, Probationary Lecturer in the Department of Surgery and Dr. Chamila Lakmal, Surgical Registrar in training, the University Surgical Unit, Colombo South Teaching Hospital.
The team was selected over two Indian surgical teams in the final 20-minute presentation before a four-member jury comprising the members of the editorial board of the BMJ. This is the first time a Sri Lankan Surgeon along with his team won the prestigious award in the history of BMJ Awards South Asia.