Dr Dynatra Subasinghe
Academic and research departments
School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.About
Biography
Current University Roles
Dynatra serves as the Associate Dean for Education (ADE) within the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences (FHMS) at the University of Surrey. In this role, Dynatra provides strategic leadership and oversight of educational delivery across a diverse student body enrolled in a wide range of programmes. These programmes include partnerships with healthcare providers and veterinary practices, ensuring that education remains contemporary, inclusive, and impactful.
As Chair of the Faculty Education Committee and a member of the University of Surrey Education Leadership Group, Dynatra is responsible for:
- Providing strategic and inspirational leadership to the Faculty’s teaching and learning community and curriculum development.
- Leading, supporting, and overseeing teaching, learning, and the student experience in collaboration with the relevant Schools' Associate Heads of Education (AHE) and the Faculty Executive Board.
- Developing and driving the Faculty's educational strategy in alignment with the University’s broader Teaching and Learning priorities.
- Enhancing teaching excellence and improving the student experience through data-informed improvements at school, faculty and institutional levels.
As ADE, Dynatra plays a pivotal role in transforming the Faculty's educational landscape, working closely with the Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean-FHMS, Faculty Executive Board and the University’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education. This role demands innovative approaches to teaching and learning, integrating digital solutions to enrich student experiences through online and blended learning models.
With a strong commitment to advancing educational practices, Dynatra leads initiatives that align with the University of Surrey’s strategic goals. These initiatives emphasise research-informed teaching, real-world applications, and digital innovation. Under Dynatra's leadership, FHMS continues to evolve its programmes to meet the demands of a rapidly changing healthcare and scientific landscape.
The Faculty is dedicated to improving human and animal health and well being through pioneering research and education. Dynatra supports this mission by championing teaching excellence, promoting innovative pedagogical practices, and fostering a dynamic and inclusive student experience. This includes overseeing the development of contemporary programmes that reflect global standards, sustainability principles, and employability trends. Dynatra’s leadership extends to ensuring effective training and support for academic staff, encouraging innovation in teaching methods, and driving continuous improvements in educational outcomes.
Dynatra continues to teach Shelter Medicine and Small Animal Clinical Practice at the Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, .
Biography
Dynatra is a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), UK, and the Sri Lanka Veterinary Council. A dedicated veterinary academic specialising in small animal clinical practice and higher education, she joined the University of Surrey’s School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) in 2018 subsequent to her post as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and clinician in multiple Small Animal hospitals in UK and Sri Lanka. SVM is a pioneering institution that adopts a fully distributed veterinary clinical education model, where Dynatra has held multiple leadership roles.
She has played a key role in developing innovative educational interventions, including the AMRSim workshop, an interactive teaching session utilising a 3-D antimicrobial resistance simulator to enhance early clinical training for veterinary undergraduates. Building on this initiative, a PhD project is underway to expand its application in clinical practice on infection prevention and control, with the goal of improving antimicrobial stewardship in veterinary practice. She also co-led a British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy-funded MOOC, which has reached over 6,000 learners across 132 countries, and contributed to Public Health England’s e-Bug programme.
From 2022 to 2024, Dynatra served as Programme Leader for the BVMSci clinical years, during which she successfully led the clinical curriculum accreditation process for both the RCVS (UK) and the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE), working closely with the SVM Director of Learning and Teaching. She also chaired the Veterinary Curriculum Committee and the Board of Studies, overseeing curriculum development and enhancement.
With a strong background in curriculum design, Dynatra has co-led multiple curriculum reviews, aligning educational delivery with staff workloads to enhance programmatic efficiency. Dynatra serves in the Vet Sustain curriculum working group. She previously served as Section Head for Small Animal Clinical Teaching (2022–2023), leading a team of clinical academics, as a module leader for several BVMSci modules, and as FHMS Pedagogical Coordinator, collaborating across FHMS schools to align teaching, learning, and assessment with the university's educational strategy.
Dynatra has contributed to external curriculum review consultations for multiple UK higher education institutions and continues to serve on international clinical research funding organisation boards. Her research interests include antimicrobial stewardship across prescribing professions in clinical practice in human and animal healthcare, as well as higher education pedagogy. She actively collaborates with international research teams across multiple countries.
Areas of specialism
My qualifications
Previous roles
ResearchResearch interests
Dynatra has a broad range of research interests in health and biological sciences, veterinary practice and pedagogy. Her research work includes minimising antimicrobial use in general veterinary clinical practice/antimicrobial stewardship. A one health one medicine public health issue. Given her background in small animal practice, toxicology and pharmacology, she is keen to explore alternative therapies and preventative care in general veterinary clinical practice, in order to minimise antimicrobial use. Her pedagogical research work includes exploring innovative teaching techniques for clinical practice teaching, learning,teaching and assessment in higher education, curriculum design and review, active learning, practical clinical skills learning, academic support in higher education. She is active in supervising PG and UG student projects and engaging veterinary practitioners in clinical research.
Research interests
Dynatra has a broad range of research interests in health and biological sciences, veterinary practice and pedagogy. Her research work includes minimising antimicrobial use in general veterinary clinical practice/antimicrobial stewardship. A one health one medicine public health issue. Given her background in small animal practice, toxicology and pharmacology, she is keen to explore alternative therapies and preventative care in general veterinary clinical practice, in order to minimise antimicrobial use. Her pedagogical research work includes exploring innovative teaching techniques for clinical practice teaching, learning,teaching and assessment in higher education, curriculum design and review, active learning, practical clinical skills learning, academic support in higher education. She is active in supervising PG and UG student projects and engaging veterinary practitioners in clinical research.
Supervision
Postgraduate research supervision
Dynatra currently supervises a doctoral student working towards antimicrobial stewardship in veterinary practice project titled “Innovative solutions to improve antibiotic stewardship and reduced AMR in veterinary practices”.
Teaching
Dynatra teaches small animal general and charity clinical practice in the BVMSci program and post graduate programs. She contributes to all levels of the curriculum to ensure the effective delivery of small animal practice and shelter medicine teaching throughout the course. She is has undertaken multiple pedagogical projects to enhance scholarship of teaching and learning in veterinary education. She is keen to enhance the student experience and academic support in higher education while fulfilling her current roles and responsibilities at the university. She also champions antimicrobial stewardship in clinical practice and continues to research in this area and translate her research to her clinical practice teaching.
Publications
Highlights
Dona Wilani Dynatra Subasinghe, Kieran Balloo, Emily Dale, Simon Lygo-Baker, Roberto La Ragione and Mark Chambers. (2024) Efficacy of an antimicrobial reality simulator (AMRSim) as an educational tool for teaching antimicrobial stewardship to veterinary medicine undergraduates. Journal of Veterinary Medical Education. doi: 10.3138/jvme-2023-0148.
In Sri Lanka, home‐cooked diets are often fed due to the cost and poor availability of commercial diets. Milk has traditionally been a popular food to give to dogs in this country. There is a recent perceived increase in the number of owners choosing commercial diets for their pets. This study aimed to determine how dog owners visiting a single veterinary practice in Colombo fed their pets. We hoped that this would help achieve a general understanding of pet feeding practices in Sri Lanka and gain some basic demographic information on the owned dog population. The study was conducted via questionnaires distributed to pet owners visiting a first opinion and referral practice in Colombo. Hundred questionnaires were collected and analysed, 69% of study dogs were neutered, 42% of dogs were fed only home‐cooked food, while 18% were fed only commercial food. About 40% of dogs were fed a mixture of commercial and home‐cooked food, 49% of dogs were fed milk as a separate meal in addition to their normal diet and 57% of dogs received dietary supplements. Dogs consuming commercial food for more than half their intake were no less likely (P = 0.75) to receive dietary supplements than dogs fed homemade food for more than half their diet. This study provides some basic information regarding the feeding practices and demographics of the owned dog population in one Sri Lankan city, Colombo, highlighting some areas of concern.
Keywords: homemade diets, nutrition, Sri Lanka
Surveillance systems for rabies in endemic regions are often subject to severe constraints in terms of resources. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) propose the use of an active surveillance system to substantiate claims of disease freedom, including rabies. However, many countries do not have the resources to establish active surveillance systems for rabies and the testing of dead dogs poses logistical challenges. This paper explores the potential of using a scenario tree model parameterised with data collected via questionnaires and interviews to estimate the sensitivity of passive surveillance, assessing its potential as a viable low-cost alternative to active surveillance systems. The results of this explorative study illustrated that given a large enough sample size, in this case the entire population of Colombo City, the sensitivity of passive surveillance can be 100% even at a low disease prevalence (0.1%), despite the low sensitivity of individual surveillance components (mean values in the range 4.077 × 10−5 − 1.834 × 10−3 at 1% prevalence). In addition, logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with increased recognition of rabies in dogs and reporting of rabies suspect dogs. Increased recognition was observed amongst dog owners (OR 3.8 (CI, 1.3–10.8)), people previously bitten by dogs (OR 5.9 (CI, 2.2–15.9)) and people who believed they had seen suspect dogs in the past (OR 4.7 (CI, 1.8–12.9)). Increased likelihood of reporting suspect dogs was observed amongst dog owners (OR 5.3 (CI, 1.1–25)). Further work is required to validate the data collection tool and the assumptions made in the model with respect to sample size in order to develop a robust methodology for evaluating passive rabies surveillance.
Abstract
Background: Sustainability is an essential aspect of the veterinary curriculum, as expected by vet students and society in response to the climate and nature emergencies. VetSustain is a multidisciplinary group of veterinary professionals with a passion for sustainability and how the profession can inspire and enable changes. The VetSustain Curriculum Working Group has representatives from the majority of UK veterinary schools and the RCVS, including a range of discipline experts from cardiology to veterinary public health. The group meets regularly to discuss sustainability in veterinary schools, campuses and curricula. Summary of work: A survey of member institutions carried out by the VetSustain curriculum working group in 2023-4 captured how sustainability is currently being implemented in veterinary curricula at group members' intitutions. This poster adapts the AdvanceHE evidence-informed themes (Cross & Congreve, 2024) to frame a snapshot of the survey. Through the themes of campus, institution, education, students and monitoring, the poster will highlight key aspects that will be of interest to those seeking to expand and/or plan to include sustainability concepts and pedagogies in their curricula. Take home message: Veterinary professionals are in a prime position to drive sustainability working at the human, animal, environmental interface. Institutions and the profession have a shared a responsibility to help prepare students, staff and our extended networks in the principles of sustainability to face a challenging and uncertain future. We can achieve this best by working in collaboration, sharing experiences, resources and supporting each other. Cross, I & Congreve, A. (2024). The sustainable institutions project: an evidence-informed review of good practice. AdvanceHE report. Available at: https://advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/sustainable-institutions-evidence-informed-review-good-practice