I trained in medicine at the the Colombo Medical School, graduating in 1969. The course was four years followed by an internship of one year. The first year was largely spent in the study of anatomy and physiology. The rest of the course was largely clinically orientated. Medical students were welcome in the wards of the Colombo General Hospital, an institution that harked back to the British colonial era. There were lectures. Attendance was not compulsory, apart from pathology and some in physiology. Thus the student could spend their time in the wards of the great hospital or use lecture time to catch up on sleep, particularly if the night had been spent in the casualty wards. I sat the primary examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS) in my intern year and then emigrated to New Zealand. The rest of my medical career was spent in the public hospitals of Auckland and the School of Medicine of the University of Auckland.

I completed my training in surgery and was admitted as a Fellow of The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons on the 22ed of January 1974. I subsequently changed direction from surgery to pathology. On the 30th September, 1980, I was admitted to the Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. In the same year I was appointed senior lecturer in forensic and anatomical pathology at the Auckland school of medicine and finally, Associate Professor of Forensic Pathology at the same institute. During this time I developed a system of teaching medicine at post-mortem examinations.

In my book A Life in Two Lands: The autobiography of a surgeon/forensic pathologist, I describe in some detail what I have just outlined. The decline of standards in the teaching of medicine and the resultant degradation of the clinical standards of medical graduates, led me to outline the definition, ethics, underlying philosophy and method to the study of medicine in my booklet A Practical Guide to the Study of Medicine.