Dr. Magha Dissanayake was born in Sri Lanka and received a scholarship to study medicine at People’s Friendship University (PFU) in Moscow, Russia in 1979. At PFU, he joined students from 103 countries, all from developing nations on scholarships. Dr. Dissanayake (or Dr. D as he likes to be called) is trilingual and studied medicine in the Russian language. He graduated in 1986 with his MD and returned to Sri Lanka where he did his General Medicine and General Surgery Internship at Anuradhapura General Hospital, located in the central part of the country. In 1988, he moved to Colombo, the capital city, and worked at Sri Jayewardhanapura General Hospital as a senior house officer in General Surgery. 

Dr. Dissanayake then moved to UK in 1990 and worked in the Emergency Department at Dudley General Hospital, while completing his Master’s Degree in Immunology at the University of Birmingham. After completing this degree, he joined Warwickshire General Hospital as a senior house officer, rotating in General Medicine, Geriatric Medicine and Dermatology.

He moved to the US in 1994, joined the Internal Medicine residency program at Presbyterian Medical Center of University of Pennsylvania in 1995 and completed his residency and board certification in 1998.  After completing his residency, Dr. Dissanayake found his home in Eugene and has been practicing  Internal  Medicine  in the Springfield and Eugene area ever since. Dr. Dissanayake likes to educate his patients with examples of how advances in medical sciences have helped humankind.

Dr. Dissanayake speaks English, Sinhalese and Russian. His wife is also in healthcare as a mental health therapist, and together, they have 2 daughters. Dr. Dissanayake cares deeply about both human rights and animal rights and has pets at home. He also likes ballroom dancing, music and gardening.