Browsing by Author "Amarasena, A."

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    Redesigning new policy options for thalassemia prevention in Sri Lanka
    (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2022) Amarasinghe, N.; Amarasena, A.; Thabrew, A.; Werawatte, P.; Premawardhena, A.; Malik, F.; Abusayeed, M.; Wickramasinghe, C.
    Sri Lanka, a country with 22 million people, has nearly 2000 thalassemia patients with severe thalassemia, two-thirds of whom have beta thalassemia major (TM). The current prevention program based on promoting “safe marriages”, which has been in existence for over 15 years, has failed to reduce thalassemia major births. We set about to examine the cost-effectiveness of novel policy options for thalassemia prevention in Sri Lanka. METHODS: The current cost for treatment of a thalassemia major patient (USD 2602/yr) was compared against the cost per reduction of single birth with three novel strategies, namely intensifying the screening in the current five districts combined with an education program (policy option 1), a nationwide screening program (policy option 2), and antenatal screening combined with the termination of pregnancy (policy option 3). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of the different strategies was calculated. RESULTS: The status quo was considered to reduce one TM birth whilst the new policy options were able to reduce births by 14, 35, and 48, respectively. The costs incurred for the program for a year for status quo and the three novel programs were USD 104,788, 173,884, 781,372, and 904,186 respectively. Cost per prevention of a thalassemia major birth was USD 87,324, 12,420, 22,324, and 20,084, respectively. The lifetime cost per treatment of a thalassemia major patient was USD 34,653. CONCLUSIONS: Given the current legal restriction on termination of pregnancy for fetal indications, policy option 2, an island-wide screening with mass education, is the most cost-effective and will be expected to deliver a substantial reduction in new births.
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    The Role of the Internet in Australian Small Firms Exporting to Sri Lanka: An Innovative Export Model
    (2011) Amarasena, A.
    The purpose of this exploratory research paper is to offer an understanding on the role of the Internet in the context of small firms exporting from an advanced to emerging market. The countries chosen in this context are Australia and Sri Lanka. The research study involves face to face interviews with the owner/managers of Australian exporting firms. It reveals that the exporters? knowledge on the customer base in Sri Lanka and their advantage of being connected to various networks both in Australia and Sri Lanka make their exporting business high performing. The owner/managers who gained a number of years of international business experience from working as managers of firms in the export market would add further advantage to exporting firms. The paper suggests that the capability of owner/managers to identify the right blend of Internet technology while managing human factors in the export process is critical to their export success.