A better outcome for infantile spasms: What is the evidence?

It is indeed a privilege to stand before you today and speak in honour of one of the great paediatricians produced by this country. Professor Cholomondley Chalmers de Silva, known to his friends as Chummy, became the first Professor of Paediatrics when he joined the then University of Ceylon in 1949. With this he became a Visiting Paediatrician to the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) as well. As an academic, researcher and an administrator, he has rendered a great service to this country. As an academic, he worked hard to improve the standard of paediatric undergraduate and postgraduate education. Establishment of the Diploma in Child Health (DCH) was one of his major accomplishments. He was one of the best researchers in his era and made the University Unit at LRH a centre for research. His main interests included nutritional disorders, haemoglobinopathies and infective diarrhoeas. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Convalescent Home for nutritional rehabilitation of malnourished children at Thalagolla. As a member of the department which he headed, it is my greatest privilege to speak to you tonight on research which we have conducted in the same unit he established many years ago. In honour of this great paediatrician, I will now speak to you about “A better outcome for infantile spasms: What is the evidence?”