Effective and meaningful engagement with complex modern medical systems requires an overarching set of tools. System dynamics is such a tool, allowing health practitioners to model and simulate problems ranging from the molecular level to the entire healthcare system and beyond. This introductory course will teach you the fundamental principles of system dynamics as you learn how to use system dynamics software to explore problems relevant to your field of health. Whether you work in molecular biology, clinical medicine, health policy, or any other health-related field, this course will equip you to investigate the effects of time delays, feedback and system structure. You will learn how to interpret the causes of typical system behaviors such as growth, decay and oscillation in terms of the underlying system properties, and to rapidly develop computer-based models and run simulations to gain insight into the problems in your domain. This course will empower you with a deeper understanding and an enhanced capacity to achieve useful interventions in healthcare.

Did you know that frailty can affect the quality of life of older people? Did you know that frailty can impose a burden on the significant others of older people? If you are a member of the general public and would like to know about the prevention of frailty and the promotion of healthy ageing, or if you are a healthcare professional who would like to provide the best care for older people and family members in order to combat frailty, this course is for you. The aim of this course is not only to provide theoretical knowledge about frailty, but also to give practical input to help our learners become familiar with frailty and how to manage it. Frailty is a common condition among older people. It is associated with ageing, which is a trend that is becoming a major concern around the globe. Frailty is not only costly in terms of medical expenses, but also imposes a mental and financial burden on the family members of older people with the condition. A person with frailty is also at an increased risk of disease, disability, and death. However, frailty is reversible. Preventing frailty is an important target in the promotion of healthy ageing. Apart from introducing concepts related to frailty, this course also provides some practical approaches to help individuals, including the older people themselves, caregivers, and healthcare professionals, to monitor and manage frailty in daily life. Short movies and videos are used for illustration. The techniques introduced in this course for managing frailty can be incorporated into daily life, making frailty easier to manage. This course is designed for anyone interested in the management of frailty. Taking this course will help you to manage the frailty and promote the health of older people around you.

Are you preparing for a health-related career, or planning to study in the health sciences? Perhaps you're just keen to learn more about the wonders of the human body? Our bodies are amazing but complex biological machines. This course will provide you with an outstanding foundation of knowledge in human anatomy and physiology. You will gain a broad understanding of the relationships between normal structure and function in human cells and tissues, both in health and disease. The properties of the four main types of tissue in the body - epithelial, connective, muscular and nervous - will also be clearly explained. The course employs a variety of engaging learning methods, including short videos, animations, interactive activities and integrated quizzes to guide you through key concepts, and make learning relevant.

Addiction is such a common problem today that people experiencing alcohol, nicotine or other drug problems present in many different healthcare settings. The challenge of linking people experiencing addiction to the right response is a serious one, and much depends on understanding addiction and recognising the role that we all play in the pathway to recovery. This course is intended to help you meet this challenge by increasing your understanding of the biology of addiction and the available treatment options in the different stages of the recovery journey. Key questions we will look at in this course include: When do we call “excessive use” addiction? Why is it so difficult to change addictive behaviour? Who can play a role to get people on the track to recovery? How do you respond to people with mild to moderate problems? How can you assess and increase motivation to change? What sort of interventions can support a person experiencing severe addiction? What is my role as a professional, either within or outside of addiction care? How can I identify the best of the many options available? What are hurdles to get the right support to manage addiction around the world? This course explores the “Recovery Pathway,” an easy-to-use framework for helping people with addiction move successfully from addiction to recovery. It helps plan a pathway through screening and assessment, to withdrawal and long-term relapse prevention. The course will examine a range of psychosocial interventions and medication-assisted treatments. You will review the biological basis of behaviour and treatment related to the stage of recovery, as well as evidence-based and service delivery considerations. This course is an ideal starting-point for healthcare professionals who want to get to grips with effective approaches to treating addiction.

Have you ever wondered what viruses actually are? Have you been curious about the ways they invade our bodies, attack our cells and make us sick? Come and learn what viruses are made of and understand the mechanisms of how they hijack and take over our cells. There is no need for a background in science - just bring your curious mind! Our bodies are made of cells, which are amazing molecular machines. So long as everything is in working order, we feel great. But surprisingly, these unbelievably tiny parasites made of Protein and Genes - viruses - can take over and cause serious damage to our bodies. Step by step, this course will teach you how the cells of our bodies work to keep us healthy. We will then explore the vast kingdom of viruses; especially those that have caused epidemics like the flu, AIDS and Ebola. Finally, we will systematically review our immune system, how it identifies "the enemies," and how it takes them out. The lectures have been carefully planned to clearly describe basic Cell Biology, Virology, and Immunology in terms that everyone can understand, without compromising scientific correctness. You'll participate in a detailed exploration of the structures in our cells and how they function. You'll learn how viruses replicate and the way our immune system protects us from disease, as well as how scientists investigate these topics. You'll view laboratory demonstrations that illustrate how cells and viruses are grown and studied. Throughout the course, you will meet leading experts and scientists - some of whom have received the Nobel Prize in recognition of their discoveries and contributions to Chemistry and Medicine. Together we will gain a clearer understanding of how science has been applied to produce effective diagnostic tests, better medicines, and protective vaccines. You'll gain fascinating and comprehensible knowledge that is also practical. It is our goal to arm you with sufficient credible and practical understanding of how vaccines work so that you can make better vaccine-relevant decisions for you and your family. This course was produced at Tel Aviv University by TAU Online - learning innovation center.

Drug discovery is a challenging field, but the pathway most drugs navigate from concept to market is predictable and based upon repeated experimentation. The process requires scientists with expertise in chemistry, biology, and medicine. This course focuses on four aspects of drug development. regulation - approval protocols for government regulatory agencies pharmacodynamics - how a drug affects the body pharmacokinetics - how a drug flows through the body lead discovery/optimization - the steps for finding and improving molecules as potential drugs The course closes with two case studies of molecules that have advanced through the development process and into clinical trials.

Principles of Biochemistry integrates an introduction to the structure of macromolecules and a biochemical approach to cellular function. Topics addressing protein function will include enzyme kinetics, the characterization of major metabolic pathways and their interconnection into tightly regulated networks, and the manipulation of enzymes and pathways with mutations or drugs. An exploration of simple cells (red blood cells) to more complex tissues (muscle and liver) will be used as a framework to discuss the progression in metabolic complexity. Learners will also develop problem solving and analytical skills that are more generally applicable to the life sciences.

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.