Bioethics provides an overview of the legal, medical, and ethical questions around reproduction and human genetics and how to apply legal reasoning to these questions. This law course includes interviews with individuals who have used surrogacy and sperm donation, with medical professionals who are experts in current reproductive technologies like In Vitro Fertilization and Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis, and bioethicists and journalists who study the ownership and use of genetic information within human tissue. Additional Harvard colleagues will also share with you their thoughts on topics such as disability law as it relates to reproductive technology. While the law and ethics surrounding these technologies are a central component to this course, we also show you examples of the deeply personal and human side of these issues. Throughout the course, and with the help of law students, we will discuss leading legal cases in this field, which will illuminate the types of questions the law has struggled with – stretching and evolving over time. From the famous Baby M surrogacy case, to cases on the paternity of sperm donors, to a case related to the ownership of human tissue turned into a commercial product, and others. We will show you the ethical, legal, and rhetorical underpinnings, which have served as the basis for various court decisions over the past 20 or 30 years. We will also explore potential future technologies and their implications for society: genetic enhancements to increase our intelligence, let us live a hundred years longer, or make us immune to diseases – and the possibility of creating animal-human hybrids, for example a mouse with a humanized brain. The content within this course is intended to be instructive, and show how legal reasoning has been applied, or could be applied, to questions related to parenthood, reproduction, and other issues surrounding human genetic material. The material organized within this course should be considered an authoritative overview, but is not intended to serve as medical or legal advice.

This medicinal chemistry course explores how chemists modify a molecule’s structure to design a safe and effective drug. This course opens with a brief history of drug discovery and introduces the modern drug approval process.Then, we will transition to learning about receptors and enzymes, the body’s molecules most often targeted by drugs.We will also discuss the topics of pharmacokinetics (drug adsorption, elimination, and half-life) and metabolism. The course closes with units on how potential drug molecules are identified and subsequently optimized into safe and effective drugs.

This course sets the foundation for SEMPER members’ disaster knowledge, which will be supplemented by in-person lectures as well as field exercises. All SEMPER members are required to complete this course. Non-SEMPER members interested in learning more about disaster medicine or any person wishing to deploy to a disaster is also welcomed to complete this course.

Do you want to broaden your knowledge on vaccinology or get a first well-balanced introduction to different aspects of the vaccine field? Then tune in for this MOOC! Do you know vaccines have proven to be one of the most powerful and effective ways of reducing morbidity and mortality and even eradicating diseases? Within this MOOC, we will elaborate on the burden of some infectious diseases. Besides the history of vaccines and the impact on mankind, a module will be dedicated to vaccine immunology. You will learn more about the different stages in vaccine development and the (sometimes) troublesome path to reach those most in need. Big steps forward have been made, but there are still challenges to tackle, including the recent vaccine hesitancy leading to a worrisome reduction in vaccination rates. A novel vaccine platform technology, named PLLAV (i.e. plasmid-launched live-attenuated viral vaccine) will be highlighted as well. This MOOC is aimed at all stakeholders in the vaccine field like students, parents, scientists, NGOs, politicians and many more.

Overview Internet Enduring Material Sponsored by the Stanford University School of Medicine. Presented by the Department of Health Research and Policy (Division of Epidemiology) at Stanford University School of Medicine This course seeks to fulfill the clinical community’s need to improve skills in the critical evaluation of clinical research papers. Competency in critical appraisal skills can have a significant impact by improving clinical practice, quality of research projects, and peer-review of manuscripts and grants. The course will utilize efficient and engaging videos with relevant clinical examples to cover essential research methodology principles. The online format will provide opportunities for self-paced learning and practicing critical appraisal of a variety of published studies that evaluate benefit, harm, and prognosis. Accreditation The Stanford University School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The Stanford University School of Medicine designates this enduring material for a maximum of 2.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ . Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. If you would like to earn CME credit from Stanford University School of Medicine for participating in this course, please review the information here prior to beginning the activity.

During the five weeks of our course you will look into some of the most interesting and important areas of contemporary bioethics. This course, unlike other courses in bioethics, is primarily directed towards students reading biomedicine and not only medical educations leading to a certain profession, like physicians, nurses, physiotherapists etc. The latter students often have ethical codes specific to their profession. Moreover, much of their ethical training is about ethical problems that arise in the relationship between health care professional and patient. This course is directed to the students who have scientific biomedical training as their main focus. Such students often end up in development and research or at biomedical laboratories. However, they encounter ethical questions in their professional lives as well. Here are a few examples of the ethical questions that will be addressed during the course: How should we use animals or humans in biomedical research? For instance, what level of risk for harm is allowed? What are the rights of privacy or autonomy of patients or research subjects? How should we distribute the benefits and burdens of medical interventions locally and globally? What medical tests should healthcare offer? Are the certain tests, for instance genetic tests, that should not be offered at all? Who should get access to genetic information about an individual that results from a genetic test? Insurance companies? Employers? Researchers? Relatives? Should we use medical interventions only to cure disease or also to improve the functioning of already healthy individuals? In order to tackle these questions in a fruitful way, basic concepts and tools from ethics in general and bioethics in particular is an integral part of the course.

Musculoskeletal AnatomyX invites students to join medical and basic science faculty at Harvard Medical School (HMS) to learn about musculoskeletal injuries commonly seen in clinical practice. For each case, students visit the HMS Clinical Skills Center to observe the initial patient encounter and physical examination by an orthopedic surgeon. Following the patient encounter, students complete the interactive gross anatomy, histology and radiology learning sessions essential for understanding the case. The anatomy learning sessions include observing actual dissections in the Harvard Medical School anatomy laboratories revealing and explaining the human anatomy relevant for each clinical case. After completing the case learning sessions, students review pertinent radiology images, commit to a tentative diagnosis from a list of differential diagnoses, and accompany the patient to a virtual operating room to observe the surgical treatment. In the virtual operating room, students observe narrated videos of actual surgical procedures. Clinical content for each case is developed in close collaboration with leading orthopedic surgeons and radiologists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. This course will take you inside the anatomy laboratories where students entering medicine, dental medicine, and other health professions study anatomy by performing anatomical dissections. Content includes videos, photographs, and other content, including anatomical images and videos showing cadaver dissection, that some people may find offensive, disturbing or inappropriate.

Brain and behavior are inextricably linked in neuroscience. The function of the brain is to govern behavior, and the aim of this course is to causally link biophysical mechanisms with simple behaviors studied in mice. The brain processes information through the concerted activity of many neurons, which communicate with each other through synapses organised in highly dynamic networks. The first goal of the course is to gain a detailed understanding of the structure and function of the fundamental building blocks of the mammalian brain, its synapses and neurons. The second goal is to understand neuronal networks, with specific emphasis on the interactions of excitatory glutamatergic and inhibitory GABAergic neurons. The third goal is to place neuronal network function in the context of sensory processing ultimately leading to behavioral decisions and motor output.

The real-life stroke scenario presented in ANA101x Human Anatomy has invited vigorous discussions on whether fully recovery from a severe stroke is possible and how it could happen. The knowledge of anatomy has arisen a series of queries on body functioning that are commonly implicated in stroke. An extension of human anatomy fundamentals towards functional anatomy has formed the basis of intervention approaches for functional recovery undertaken by different healthcare professionals, which is guiding the ultimate goals of post-stroke rehabilitation program for regaining independence and quality-of-life of the individuals. Therefore, this course is particularly designed to delineate the stroke recovery process and its underlying scientific rationales. Continuing using the same clinical case of Mr Law, this course walks you through the recovery journey, known as stroke care pathway involving multiple healthcare professionals to compose module ONE. In module TWO, intervention approaches practiced in key healthcare disciplines underpinned by the functional anatomy will be explored. Finally, the course knowledge will be assessed using an experiential approach using a set of mini case studies derived from the mainstream scenario of Mr Law.

Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) is a critical tool in the fight against the global HIV epidemic.  With ART, antiretroviral drugs are used to suppress the HIV virus, stop the progression of the disease, and prevent onward transmission. In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) updated their consolidated guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs in the fight against HIV. This course will equip health workers with the skills they need to use antiretroviral therapy for HIV treatment and prevention according to these updated clinical guidelines. Taught by clinical experts in HIV and global health, the course is self-directed to accommodate individual schedules.