Nutrition education medical curriculum Rakesh Tandon. Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute for Liver, Renal and Digestive Diseases, New Delhi, India. It is well recognized the nutrition plays a major role in causation and perpetuation of a number of disease specially infective disorders, so prevalent in Asia Pacific region. Futhermore, improving the nutrition of the patient is as important as the specific therapy in the management of severe acute as well as chronic debilitating diseases. Literature supports strongly that establishment of a nutrition support service in a hospital would result in a decrease in morbidity and mortality and the overall cost of treatment of the patients. The nutritional support is best provided by a team comprised of a dietition, nutritionist, nurse, pharmacist and the treating physician. The physician should however, be the leader of the team and should prescribe the specific nutritional therapy for his/her patient. Unfortunately, adequate nutritional support is often seen missing from the treatment chart of hospitalized patients because the physician has not even thought of it. Similarly, diet related questions posed by the out-patients are often brushed aside casually by the physicians. The main reason is lack of knowledge as also the appreciation of the importance of the nutritional aspect of treatment. The fault lies in the present undergraduate medical education system. But for a few lectures on the basics of nutritional principles during physiology courses and on community nutrition during the clinical training, the undergraduate curricula do not include any teaching on nutritional support. The best time to teach the principles of nutrition and methods of nutritional support is when lectures are being given on the clinical aspects of diseases. Along with the specific therapy the overall management including the nutritional support should be emphasized. The routes of administration and the formulations available should also be told to the students. This will dig in them concept that nutritional support is a part of the disease management. It is easier to train the young fresh graduates than to teach new concepts to well established old physicians. From "The 10th Congress of PENSA" Dusit Resort Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand, October 27--29, 2004 : Page 50