LAHORE: The University of Health Sciences (UHS) has launched comprehensive nutrition-centred reforms across health sciences curricula to strengthen preventive healthcare capacity in Punjab.

Under the plan, reforms will extend beyond classrooms. All affiliated colleges will establish ‘nutrition societies’ to promote awareness among the students while a clinical nutrition faculty council will guide teh ongoing academic review and research integration.

Chaired by Vice Chancellor Prof Ahsan Waheed Rathore, the meeting was attended by Services Institute of Medical Sciences Principal Prof Zohra Khanum and Prof Junaid Rashid, Pro-VC of the University of Child Health Sciences, along with faculty members from public health, nutrition and family medicine departments.

A spokesperson for the UHS said the reforms, developed in collaboration with Unicef Pakistan, integrate structured nutrition competencies into MBBS and other undergraduate and postgraduate programmes so that future clinicians could assess nutritional status, detect deficiencies early and incorporate preventive dietary counselling into routine care.

He said the meeting also reviewed related initiatives, including a certification course in family medicine for general practitioners aimed at strengthening maternal and child health services at primary care level.

In addition, a dedicated geriatric clinic is being set up at Services Institute of Medical Sciences to assess nutrition-related decline among the older adults and promote healthy aging through evidence-based care.

Prof Rathore said: “Existing surveys provide useful direction but lack detailed data on elderly nutrition and limited information on adolescent girls during critical growth years. Academic institutions must prepare doctors who can address these realities even before new data sets emerge”.

He added that embedding clinical nutrition into the mainstream teaching would help shift healthcare from treatment toward prevention.

The participants noted that Pakistan’s most recent comprehensive national nutrition data dated back to 2018, which underscored the need for updated research and stronger clinical capacity. They said the revised curricula position nutrition as a core clinical competency rather than a supplementary topic.

Prof Rashid stressed that dietary habits within households were shaping child health outcomes. He warned that frequent intake of processed foods and refined products was increasingly linked with obesity, metabolic disorders and earlier puberty, urging parents to reconsider routine food choices at home.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2026