12-9-98

Contacts:
Dean Carol Meeks, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, (515) 294-0860
Mary Jane Oakland, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, (515) 294 -2536
Kevin Brown, News Service, (515) 294-8986

ISU TO HELP CREATE DIETETICS PROGRAM FOR PAKISTAN

AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University is helping a Pakistan university address the need for dietetic training in that country's medical field.

ISU's College of Family and Consumer Sciences has entered into a cooperative agreement with Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan. The agreement will result in a graduate program in dietetics at Punjab University.

Carol Meeks, dean of the college, and Tahira Hira, professor in Human Development and Family Studies, recently set-up the cooperative agreement.

As part of the agreement, Mary Jane Oakland, associate professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition, will work with students and faculty at Punjab University for six weeks in the fall, 1999.

Oakland said preliminary curriculum discussions began earlier this year. Currently, there is no medical-need based dietary training in Pakistan. She said it is tradition there for family members to bring food to a hospitalized family member. The Pakistani medical profession has noted a need for controlled nutritional programs in their hospitals. This will be the first effort in that direction.

"It's exciting to help devise a program where you have a blank slate to build from," Oakland said. "We are responding to their needs -- this is the training that they have identified."

She said the curriculum focuses on introducing the program as an integrated part of Pakistan's health care system, tailoring it to make the program culturally appropriate, and to stress the contributions that nutrition plays in modern medicine.

The first 10 students for the three-month course of study will be accepted in January, Oakland said.

Matina Xia, the vice-principal of the College of Home Economics in Lahore, visited ISU for six-weeks earlier this year.

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Revised 12/10/98