Nutrition and dietetics--neglected subjects in medical education

A brief historical review of the development of nutrition and dietetics in the world is followed by concise description of the history of the discipline in Croatia after the foundation of the School of Medicine in Zagreb in 1919. As differentiated from the Schools of Medicine in Zagreb, Rijeka, Osijek and Split, the third, nutritional curriculum at the School of Food Science and Biotechnology has allocated as many as 280 theoretical and 110 practical periods in the form of seminars (15 periods) and practical exercise (95 periods) to nutrition and dietetics. The curriculum includes special course of lectures in dietetics, delivered by a physician specialized in the field. This is followed by the observation that none of the four Croatian Schools of Medicine in Zagreb, Rijeka, Osijek and Split has introduced systematic education in the field in either undergraduate or postgraduate curricula. There are only some sporadic related topics included in undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Thus, the paper points to the serious neglect of this important subject in the curricula of our medical schools, and present some ideas how to solve the problem in the nearest future. The possible organization of a special postgraduate study in nutrition and dietetics for physicians willing to devote themselves professionally to this field of medicine is strongly advocated, because modern nutritional practices and dietetics are likely to soon impose the need of such experts in every large hospital and clinical department.