Improving Your Image: Dental Photography in Practice
ADD FREE starts 25 May 2015
This free course will cover all aspects of the use of digital photography in dental practice: intra-oral, extra-oral, and portraits. Learners will be taken through photography, from the basics of choosing correct equipment and setting it up, to optimum settings, techniques for consistent imaging and the safe storage of images. The course is taught by the team that delivers the online masters degree course in Advanced General Dental Practice from the School of Dentistry at the University of Birmingham UK.

Liver Disease: Looking After Your Liver
ADD FREE starts 15 May 2015
This course will teach you about the amazing roles the liver plays to keep you healthy and will explain you how these functions are compromised when the liver is damaged. Learners will explore reasons why liver disease is on the increase and amazing new treatment options available to address the global challenge of liver disease. Finally we will also show you some simple steps you can take to look after your liver.

Medicine in the Digital Age
ADD FREE starts 5 May 2015
The course is intended for a general audience and is relevant to anyone working or interested in the emerging healthcare environment. We will explore the role of social media in healthcare communication, the uses of wearable technologies, the potential for big data to reshape health behaviors, the ethics of personalized medicine, and the impact of these new developments on the doctor-patient relationship. Learners will gain an understanding of the connected health revolution and tools to critically analyze this evolving ecosystem.

What Is a Mind?
ADD FREE starts 11 May 2015
This free online course will bring together learners and practitioners interested in how the mind works. It aims to build bridges between traditionally antagonistic approaches to understanding the mind. Advances in the medical understanding of how the brain functions can shed light on neurological functions and disorders, but the essential question of what the mind is speaks to a different problem. Professor Mark Solms will bring in perspectives from a range of disciplines, to explore four specific aspects of the mind- subjectivity, intentionality, consciousness and agency.

Heart Health: a Beginner's Guide
to Cardiovascular Disease
ADD FREE starts 11 May 2015
This four-week course will improve your knowledge of how the heart works, the effects of heart disease and what you can do to avoid it. We'll explore the anatomy of the heart, explaining how the circulatory system works and what it does. We'll then introduce some of the most common cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart failure. We’ll help you understand their effects on the body, why they happen and what can be done to prevent them. In the final week, we’ll examine the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and what you can do keep your heart healthy.

The Brain and Space
ADD FREE starts 11 May 2015
Knowing where things are is effortless. But "under the hood," your brain must figure out even the simplest of details about the world around you and your position in it. Recognizing your mother, finding your phone, going to the grocery store, playing the banjo – these require careful sleuthing and coordination across different sensory and motor domains. This course traces the brain's detective work to create this sense of space and argues that the brain's spatial focus permeates our cognitive abilities, affecting the way we think and remember.

The Ethics of Eating
ADD FREE starts 15 April 2015
You face a difficult moral decision every time you decide what to eat. What impact should animal rights have on your decision? Is the suffering involved in meat, egg and dairy production bad enough that you should go vegan? How do your food choices affect the economy and the environment? Should you eat only sustainably produced "farm to table" food? Or is factory-farmed food more efficient and ultimately better for the environment? This class will provide the tools required to reflect clearly and effectively on these and various other challenging questions. The focus of the curriculum is to provide a working understanding of some leading ethical theories and key issues related to food production, distribution and consumption. As you work through the course, you’ll hear from scientists, philosophers, activists and industry participants.

eHealth – Opportunities and Challenges
ADD FREE starts 22 April 2015
This course will introduce learners to the field of eHealth and its opportunities and challenges. You will examine the different concepts used in the field and learn how it developed historically. You’ll meet various stakeholders from around the world and explore their views on the opportunities and challenges of eHealth. We’ll also introduce you to eHealth strategies and frameworks for developing and analyzing them.

Ebola in Context: Understanding Transmission, Response and Control
ADD FREE starts 13 April 2015
How has the Ebola outbreak become a humanitarian emergency? Learn about the science behind the crisis. In 2014, Ebola went from a scarcely known virus to the subject of daily news reports. The epidemic in West Africa has quickly surpassed all previous outbreaks, becoming an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Over two weeks, we'll explore the principles of infectious disease transmission and the social context of the Ebola epidemic. We will examine treatment and control measures - from those already in place to those planned - and the challenges of implementation and innovation in an emergency. Learn from multiple perspectives We’ll hear first-hand accounts and interviews with those who are at the front line of the response in Africa. The course includes short lectures, exercises, videos and links to further reading.

Dyslexia and Foreign Language Teaching
ADD FREE starts 20 April 2015
Dyslexia affects 10-15% of the population. Dyslexic students are often either exempted from the study of additional languages or they underperform in foreign language classes. This free course is designed for current and trainee teachers of additional languages. It offers you practical tools and theoretical insights to help you accommodate and meet the needs of students with dyslexia in foreign or second language classes.

Global Blindness: Planning and Managing Eye Care Services
ADD FREE starts 27 April 2015
Around the world, 285 million people are blind or visually impaired. 75% of this is avoidable and 90% is in low- and middle-income countries. This free online course highlights the key facts about avoidable blindness and global initiatives to address it. We will explore practical, tried and tested approaches for strengthening local eye health services, in resource limited settings. By the end of the course you will able to: examine the epidemiology of blindness and visual impairment globally and locally; relate to global initiatives to tackle blindness, such as VISION 2020: The Right to Sight and the WHO Global Action Plan 2014 – 2019; evaluate ey disease control strategies for effective cataract and refractive error service provision, applicable within local settings; and apply the principles of monitoring and evaluation to a local program.

Case Study: Variant Discovery and Genotyping
ADD FREE starts 27 April 2015
In this series, we will explore the data analysis of an experimental protocol in-depth, using various open source software, including R and Bioconductor. You will learn how to start with raw data and perform the standard processing and normalization steps to get to the point where you can investigate relevant biological questions. Throughout the case studies, we will make use of exploratory plots to provide a general overview of the shape of the data and the result of the experiment. This particular course will teach you the basic steps involved in finding genetic variants in DNA re-sequencing datasets, from read alignment to calling and aggregating variant data across many samples.

Computational Neuroscience
ADD FREE starts 1 May 2015
Understanding how the brain works is a major challenge in science today. This course will introduce you to basic computational techniques for analyzing, modeling and understanding the behavior of cells and circuits in the brain. No prior background in neuroscience is needed to take this course. Topics covered will include representation of information by spiking neurons, processing of information in neural networks, and algorithms for adaptation and learning. Matlab demonstrations and exercises will be used to provide a deeper understanding of concepts and methods introduced in the course.

Comprendre la Respiration
ADD FREE starts 23 Mar 2015
Approfondissez votre connaissance de la respiration, des poumons, de l'oxygène et du CO2, en compagnie d'étudiants et d'experts en médecine.

Introduction to Bioconductor
ADD FREE starts 30 Mar 2015
In this course, you will learn how to use Bioconductor, one of the most widely used open source toolkits for biological data. We’ll cover common uses of the software packages within the Bioconductor project, and you’ll decide whether you learn methods for next generation sequencing, microarrays, or both. The course will cover a variety of of normalization, batch correction and testing methods for high throughput data.

Biomedical Imaging
ADD FREE starts 30 Mar 2015
This course provides an introduction to biomedical imaging and modern imaging modalities. It also covers the scientific principals behind each modality and introduces some key applications, from neurological diseases to cancers. You’’ll learn how biomedical imaging technologies are complementary and what information they provide to health professionals. This course includes materials aimed at the general public, and also provides some advanced modules for professionals in health, engineering and IT industries.

Ebola: An Evolving Epidemic
ADD FREE starts 31 Mar 2015
In this 6-week course, you’ll learn about the evolving Ebola epidemic and its various aspects including disease prevention, management and treatment, response to the epidemic, ethical concerns, and the post-Ebola global health landscape.

Finding Hidden Messages in DNA (Bioinformatics I)
ADD FREE starts 13 Apr 2015
This free online course begins a series of classes illustrating the power of computing in modern biology. Join us on the frontier of bioinformatics to look for hidden messages in DNA without ever needing to put on a lab coat. After warming up our algorithmic muscles, we will learn how randomized algorithms can be used to solve problems in bioinformatics.

The Affordable Care Act and the Future of Health Care Reform (Part 2/2)
ADD FREE starts 23 Mar 2015
This course will explore the Affordable Care Act in depth and then turn towards future health reform efforts and the future of the American health care system. This is part two of a two-part course. We will examine the challenges that were overcome to achieve health reform in America, then go on to delineate the specific ways that the Affordable Care Act improves access and quality, and will control costs. The course will conclude with predictions about further reforms and about the future of health care in America.

Diabetes - A Global Challenge
ADD FREE starts 13 Apr 2015
This course will update you on cutting-edge diabetes research including biological, genetic and clinical aspects, prevention and epidemiology of diabetes, a growing health problem in rich and poor countries alike. The course will be led by high-profile scientists from one the world’s leading universities in diabetes research. Learn the newest state-of-the-art updates on diabetes research in the fields of clinical aspects of diabetes and regulation of insulin secretion, epidemiology of diabetes, heritability of diabetes, and genetic aspects of diabetes. The course will go on to explore prevention of diabetes and insulin resistance, molecular insulin resistance, cellular aspects of diabetes, physiological regulation of blood glucose, type 1 diabetes and stem cell research in diabetes.

Vaccines
ADD FREE starts 13 Apr 2015
This course examines a variety of issues concerning vaccines and vaccine safety: the history, science, benefits, and risks of vaccines. It also explores the controversies and common questions surrounding vaccines, and provides an update on newly created vaccines and recent outbreaks of previously controlled diseases. Dr. Paul Offit will lead the course, delving into the history, science, and debate behind vaccines. We’ll trace the development of vaccines over the past 250 years; discuss the benefits of vaccines in the United States and around the world; and explore the risks, both real and perceived, associated with them. We will consider how the media shapes the conversation about vaccines and controversies that surround them, in particular that vaccines cause autism, multiple sclerosis, neurodevelopmental delays, diabetes or other chronic problems. The focus throughout the course will be on research and real-world examples, and we’ll conclude with an update on newly created vaccines and recent outbreaks of previously controlled diseases.

Community Change in Public Health
ADD FREE starts 13 Apr 2015
This course explores the community context of changes needed to promote the public's health. You’ll begin by examining the various definitions of ‘community' and the processes by which we "diagnose" or seek to understand the structure and characteristics of different types of communities. An appreciation of community similarities and differences is necessary so we don’t fall into the trap of designing one-size-fits-all interventions. Identifying community capacities and resources is the first step in facilitating community change. Different practical and philosophical approaches to change are examined, along with the concept of participation in an effort to see how different levels of involvement may affect sustainability of community change efforts. A case study of a community approach to onchocerciasis control in Africa will be presented.

Caries Management by Risk Assessment (CAMBRA)
ADD FREE starts 6 Apr 2015
This course will provide the scientific foundation for caries (dental decay) risk assessment and practice interventions. You will immediately be able to apply “caries management by risk assessment” into your clinical setting or your personal health care. The course will examine the scientific basis behind the “caries balance” concept, which is the key to caries management by risk assessment in clinical practice. If pathological factors prevail, caries progresses; if protective factors prevail the caries process is halted or reversed. You’ll learn about pathological factors, such as acidogenic bacteria, salivary dysfunction, and dietary carbohydrates, which are related to caries progression; and protective factors, such as antibacterials, salivary calcium, phosphate and proteins, and fluoride in saliva, which can balance, prevent or reverse dental caries through a process of remineralization.

An Introduction to Population Health
ADD FREE starts 13 Apr 2015
In this online course, you’ll examine the most important health challenges facing the world today. You will gain insight into how challenges have changed over time, and we’ll discuss the likely determinants of such changes and examine future projections. Successful international strategies and programs promoting human health will be highlighted, and global health governance structures will be mapped and the role of the key actors explored.

Career 911: Your Future Job in Medicine and Healthcare
ADD FREE starts 13 Apr 2015
This free course is designed to high school students, recent graduates, and those considering career transitions explore health care career options and learn strategies for entry into the health care workforce and health-related fields. The course is also a resource and tool through which educators, parents, career counselors and others can support students' career readiness and professional advancement.

An Introduction to Global Health
ADD FREE starts 13 Apr 2015
In this online course, you’ll examine the most important health challenges facing the world today. You will gain insight into how challenges have changed over time, and we’ll discuss the likely determinants of such changes and examine future projections. Successful international strategies and programs promoting human health will be highlighted, and global health governance structures will be mapped and the role of the key actors explored.

Introductory Human Physiology
ADD FREE always open
In this introductory course on human physiology, you will learn to recognize and apply the basic concepts that govern integrated body function (as an intact organism) in the body’s nine organ systems.

Ebola: Essential Knowledge for Health Professionals
ADD FREE starts 30 Mar 2015
This course will acquaint you with the fundamental knowledge any health professional should have with expected or confirmed cases or a general interest in the Ebola disease. We’ll explore the epidemiology of the disease, its pathophysiology and transmission, and clinical presentation including differential diagnosis and confirmation of disease. You’ll also examine the general therapeutic approach to the care of Ebola-suspected or confirmed patients and discuss the novel vaccine and drug developments.

Introduction to Human Behavioral Genetics
ADD FREE starts 16 Mar 2015
This course is an introduction to behavioral genetics, the field within psychology that demonstrated that Nature and Nurture both play a fundamental role in development of psychological traits. You’ll examine how early behavioral genetic research radically changed how psychologists conceptualized human behavior and how the mapping of the human genome is fundamentally altering current research approaches to a wide range of behavioral characteristics. The course will cover the traditional behavioral genetic methodologies of twin and adoption studies as well as modern approaches based on molecular genetic techniques.

The Body Matters
ADD FREE starts 25 Feb 2015
This free course from McGill University via edX explores the benefits of physical activity, how to prevent injuries, and what to do when injuries do occur. The course includes content from internationally renowned experts in fields related to the science of exercise.

Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life
ADD FREE always open
In this free course from University of Chicago, offered at Coursera, you’ll learn how the nervous system produces behavior, how you use your brain every day, and how neuroscience explains common problems afflicting people today. This 10-week course is aimed at anyone interested in how the nervous system works. It opens by introducing basic neuroanatomy, neurodevelopment and mechanisms of neural communication. You’ll examine how injury and disease of different types and in different locations can alter a person's life. You will then use your understanding of fundamental neuroanatomy and physiology to examine how we perceive the outside world; how we act in the work volitionally or emotionally;; how our nervous system allows us to live; and how cognition operates to make us the human individuals that we are.

Understanding Drugs and Addiction
ADD FREE starts 9 Mar 2015
We are all touched by addiction – personally, within our circle of family and friends, and within our community. Addiction and its related harms can be crippling for those affected and the people around them. But how do addictions develop? How are they best treated and prevented? This free online course taught by Dr. Kyle Dyer explores how addiction develops and looks at the environmental, genetic and personal risks involved. Learners will examine what happens when a drug enters the body and brain, how the brain changes, and how this process can make recovering from addiction such a challenge.

Inside Cancer: How Genes Influence Cancer Development
ADD FREE starts 23 Feb 2015
Understand how genetics influence the development and spread of cancer in this free online course. Cancer is a disease that affects around one-third of the human population, irrespective of nationality or ethnic origins. There are many types of cancer, but they all have one thing in common - they begin as rebel or mutant cells. You'll learn about the fundamental biological concepts that form our understanding of cancer development, the molecular genetics behind it and its spread within the body.

Dysphagia: Swallowing Difficulties and Medicines
ADD FREE starts 2 Mar 2015
This free course will expand the knowledge of any person involved in administering medications to patients with dysphagia. It offers an opportunity to network with other learners and with the creators of the course through discussions, graphs and social networking features and to share knowledge with other learners and professionals. When you complete this course, you’ll be able to describe: the swallowing process and different causes of swallowing problems; different types of medicines formulations and how these should be administered to patients; how tablets and capsules are designed to ensure that drugs are appropriately distributed in the body; and special precautions that must be taken when giving medicines to children and seniors

Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600
ADD FREE always open
This free course from Yale University offers a worldwide analysis of the impact of epidemic diseases on western society, from the bubonic plague to HIV/AIDS, SARS and swine flu. Leading themes include: infectious disease and its impact on society; the development of public health measures; the role of medical ethics; the genre of plague literature; social reactions of mass hysteria and violence; the rise of the germ theory of disease; the development of tropical medicine; and the issue of emerging and re- emerging diseases.

Autism and Related Disorders
ADD FREE always open
This course focuses on autism and related disorders that impact socialization, communication and learning. An estimated 1 in 88 individuals are affected with this disability. This video series unifies clinical practice and research within the field and provides a series oflectures on major topics in etiology, diagnosis and assessment, and treatment and advocacy methods, examining issues from infancy through adulthood.

Caring for Vulnerable Children
ADD FREE akways open
This free online course offered by Kings College London will help you develop an understanding of approaches involved in caring for vulnerable children. You’ll learn what is meant by risk and vulnerability, as well as how we define good enough parenting. The course will delve into how children grow and develop, and how we can provide them with containment and security via meaningful relationships and attachments. The course will also examine the particular skills involved in communicating with children and young people. The course will conclude by reflecting on the current politics of caring for vulnerable children in a context of budget cuts and increasing child poverty.

Genes and the Human Condition
ADD FREE always open
This course delves into the essentials of genomics as they relate to your own life and how advances in biotechnology are radically changing the scientific landscape. It opens with an overview of basic issues of genetics, such as the composition of genomes and how an adult human evolves from an egg. Then we will look at more advanced concepts in the field, with an emphasis on behavior -- how do genes determine whether we are nice or become psychopaths? The course explores behavior as a complex unfolding of interactions between your genome and the environment, and looks into the future to consider some of the remarkable breakthroughs in science and technology that lie on the horizon.

Child Nutrition and Cooking
ADD FREE always open
Our eating patterns as children affect our health and well-being across our lifespan. The culture of eating has changed significantly in recent decades, especially in parts of the world where processed foods are popular. This course examines modern child nutrition and the impact of individual decisions made by each family. Participants will learn about the health risks associated with childhood obesity; what constitutes a healthy diet for children; and how to prepare simple, delicious foods. This course will help prepare e-learners to be the leading health providers, teachers and parents of the present and the future.

History of Public Health
ADD FREE always open
In this course, students will examine the historical experience of health and illness from a population perspective. The course examines from an historical perspective how the practice of public health in today’s world has come to be what it is. We will concentrate primarily on the modern world (1750 onwards) and omit detailed examination of public health in antiquity and the Middle Ages, although these time periods will be alluded to frequently. A thematic rather than chronological structure will be adopted so that comparisons can be made across the centuries and between different parts of the globe.

Patient Safety and Medical Errors
ADD FREE always open
This course provides an introduction to the science of safety and how it relates to problems with patient safety in health care. It examines the role of individuals and systems in improving patient safety, and reviews institutional responses to adverse events, including medical malpractice. Students will learn the basics of conducting an incident investigation, gain an understanding of the advantages and limitations of error reporting, learn how to disclose errors and adverse events, and learn models for improving safety in hospitals and other health care organizations from both the micro and macro points of view.

The American Disease: Drugs and Drug Control in the US
ADD FREE always open
This free online course from the University of Florida introduces e-learners to the history and practice of American drug laws and their origins, and the complex task of drug policy analysis. The course also tackles contemporary issues in drug control, such as marijuana policy and prescription drug misuse. At the completion of this course, students should be able to: understand federal and state responses to drugs from the late 1800s to the present; analyze drug policies to determine how well they advance intended goals; and describe how processes in the brain are affected by drugs and addiction.

Child Health and Development
ADD FREE always open
This e-course from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health focuses on the core processes of growth and development in early to middle childhood. It considers developmental theories, issues and research findings related to physical growth and cognitive, emotional and social development. It also considers appropriate instruments to assess growth and development, and evaluates the efficacy of popular early-intervention programs designed to enhance development in at-risk populations of children.

Fundamentals of Epidemiology I
ADD FREE always open
Fundamentals of Epidemiology I is the first half of a course that introduces the basic concepts of epidemiology and biostatistics as applied to public health problems. The course focuses on the principles and methods of epidemiologic investigation, appropriate summaries and displays of data, and use of classical statistical approaches to describe the health of populations. Topics include the dynamic behavior of disease; usage of rates, ratios and proportions; methods of direct and indirect adjustment, and clinical life table that measures and describes the extent of disease problems. Various epidemiologic study designs for investigating associations between risk factors and disease outcomes are also introduced, culminating with criteria for causal inferences. The application of these disciplines in the areas of health services, screening, genetics, and environment policy are presented. The influence of epidemiology and biostatistics on legal and ethical issues are also discussed.

Fundamentals of Epidemiology II
ADD FREE always open
This is the second half of a two-part course on Fundamentals of Epidemiology that introduces the basic concepts of epidemiology and biostatistics as applied to public health problems. Topics include the dynamic behavior of disease; usage of rates, ratios and proportions; methods of direct and indirect adjustment, and clinical life table that measures and describes the extent of disease problems. Various epidemiologic study designs for investigating associations between risk factors and disease outcomes are also introduced, culminating with criteria for causal inferences. The application of these disciplines in the areas of health services, screening, genetics, and environment policy are presented. The influence of epidemiology and biostatistics on legal and ethical issues are also discussed.