Islamabad: Pakistan’s health system needs to move away from excessive specialization and fragmented disease programs toward an integrated, community-centered “One Health” approach that links human, animal, and environmental wellbeing, experts said at the 2nd International Symposium on One Health in Pakistan held at COMSATS University Islamabad on Monday.
The symposium, jointly organized by the Department of Biosciences at COMSATS University Islamabad and The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES), brought together leading experts from Pakistan and France.
International speakers included Prof. Dr. Franck Boué, Dr. Gérald Umhang, and Dr. Sabine Vermillard, while national speakers included Prof. Muhammad Machharyar, Prof. Azhar Rasul, Prof. Tariq Mahmood, and Prof. Muhammad Wasif Malik.
Speaking at the event, Health Services Academy (HSA) Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Shahzad Ali Khan warned that “super specialization has become a curse for patients” as they are forced to wander from one hospital department to another, unable to find comprehensive care.
“A cardiologist can’t treat a chest infection, a urologist won’t handle a cardiac issue. We have created silos that confuse staff, burden the system, and leave patients frustrated,” he said. “What we need today are generalists, professionals who can see the patient as a whole, not as a set of organs.”
He said the One Health concept offers exactly that kind of holistic thinking. “One Health is about integration linking human, animal, and environmental health because wellbeing cannot exist in isolation. It calls for collaboration across disciplines to protect communities from both existing and emerging threats.”
Prof. Shahzad said Pakistan’s reliance on vertical health programs for tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, and hepatitis has led to duplication of resources and inefficiency. “Each program runs separately, with its own staff and budget, leading to waste. Integration under a One Health framework can help us use the same resources to address multiple challenges more effectively,” he added.
He recalled that in the past, hospitals functioned efficiently with just a few specialists medical, surgical, gynecological, and pathological but now “super-specializations” have divided health services into micro-level subfields. “The result is fragmentation, confusion, and poor outcomes. We’ve moved from generalists to sub-sub specialists, but not necessarily toward better care.”
Prof. Shahzad said the COVID-19 pandemic was a stark reminder that diseases do not respect boundaries. “COVID taught us that integration and collaboration are not optional. The One Health approach is a lesson drawn directly from that experience, we must learn to work together across human, animal, and environmental sectors to build true resilience.”
The Vice Chancellor said the government has already taken steps to institutionalize the concept. “A Technical Working Group (TWG) on One Health has been created, and I have been appointed its chairman. The Health Services Academy is also running a pilot project to train a national One Health workforce,” he announced.
Tracing the evolution of health systems over time, Prof. Shahzad compared past and present models. “We started with holistic wellbeing, added spirituality, then science and hygiene. Later came antibiotics, vaccines, and vertical disease programs. But as we move toward 2030, artificial intelligence will shape health — and if it isn’t built on integration, it will deepen fragmentation,” he warned.
Drawing a metaphor, he said, “In old markets, everything was under one roof. Now we’ve built health malls — fragmented, specialized, and expensive. We need to return to the ‘under-one-roof’ philosophy where care is comprehensive and people-centered.”
He also reflected on the scientific divide, saying, “Today’s scientists are split between the microscope and the telescope — some see too deep and lose the big picture, others see too far and miss the details. The real scope of science lies in between — in its impact on communities.”
The event focused on how the One Health approach can help Pakistan tackle climate-linked diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and zoonotic outbreaks through integrated surveillance, interdisciplinary collaboration, and stronger research partnerships.
Ends