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Mini Medical School: Hot Topics in Medical Science

Learn about cutting-edge medical science topics, separate fact from fiction, and empower yourself to look after your own health.

1,598 enrolled on this course

Scene from a surgical procedure with three medical professionals in full surgical garb and a patient undergoing a scan.

Mini Medical School: Hot Topics in Medical Science

1,598 enrolled on this course

  • 4 weeks

  • 3 hours per week

  • Accreditation available

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Advanced level

Find out more about how to join this course

The CPD Certification Service

This course has been certified by the CPD Certification Service as conforming to continuing professional development principles. Find out more.

Find out more about real-world developments in medical science

Explore the latest research on important medical issues in this dynamic four-week course. By the end, you’ll be able to separate fact from fiction and get all the answers you need when you visit a medical practice.

Gain insight into health science

The course follows Introduction to Medical Science, which explains the basics of modern medicine. In this course, those building blocks are used as foundational knowledge as you learn about real-world developments.

This translational research (theory-to-practice) approach is applied to immunology, infectious diseases, neuroscience, and cancer. You’ll get more comfortable with the way health science diagnoses prevents and treats illnesses, making connections between modern medicine theory and application.

Be empowered by modern medicine

With anti-science disinformation spreading more widely all the time, it has become crucial to understand health science. When you visit a medical practice, you need to be able to follow explanations and ask questions to ensure you understand what you’re being told.

That’s exactly what you’ll learn on this course, allowing you to be your own healthcare advocate. During this time of conflicting information on COVID-19, a clear grasp of translational research is arguably more important than ever.

Learn from the best in medical science

On this course, you’ll be taught by Dr JJ Cohen, lead educator and immunologist and founder of the Mini Medical School himself. Dr Cohen has won multiple awards and holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Sherbrooke and McGill.

As well as benefiting from Dr Cohen’s unique approach, you’ll enjoy exceptional course production from Helen MacFarlane. They have collaborated for years, and their experience ensures excellent learning experiences.

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Immunology

    • doctor giving a patient a shot

      Welcome to Mini Medical School: Hot Topics in Medicine

      intro to course 2

    • immunity hand

      Introduction & Innate Immunity

      Dr. Jenner was the first to use a cross-reacting vaccine to prevent a deadly illness, which he described in a paper published in 1796 that literally changed the world, and set the stage for the study of the immune response.

    • red coloration on hand being pulled by an elastic indicating inflammation

      Inflammation

      Is inflammation good, bad or both?

    • red blood cells and antibodies in blood stream

      Antibodies

      Antibodies: the most variable molecules in the universe!

    • T cells surrounding a virus

      T cells

      T is for thymus

    • female doctor helping a little boy immunized with a shot

      Immunization

      How does immunization work with the immune system?

    • a magnifying glass zoomed in on an animation of a toe with gout

      Immunopathology

      What happens when the immune system doesn't work

    • hunters and gatherers

      Old Friends

      Does our immune system have collaborators?

    • a stethoscope and a bag that says "Human Organ for Transplant"

      Transplantation

      How does transplantation work?

    • a globe with a syringe in it

      End of Week 1

      Reflection on the content learned in week 1 and a peak into week 2!

  • Week 2

    Infectious Disease

    • gloves, face mask, and hand sanitizer

      Infectious disease introduction

      In the 1950's people were beginning to say that the war on infectious disease was over thanks to antibiotics, but then reality set in: new diseases began to appear with increasing frequency. Antibiotic resistance became a problem.

    • microscopic image of blue bacteria

      Bacterial Disease

      We will look at fighting bacteria with antibiotics and what can happen when they aren't used well.

    • various colored pills and a thermometer

      Antibiotics and the Microbiome

      Antibiotics were a brilliant discovery in medicine. And we should be developing new ones, but the economics of doing that are not so favorable. And if we spread them around too much, we will select for bacteria that are resistant.

    • a mosquito on skin

      Malaria

      Often in western countries we don't think about diseases that are uncommon here. But we need to think about this one, because it is a cruel killer of children in poorer countries and we need to make greater efforts to control it.

    • a graphic of red lungs in a translucent human body

      Tuberculosis

      You will be astonished to learn how many of the world's people are infected with this tough, difficult to treat bacterium. It helps us understand the importance of the immune response, in this case primarily the Th1 helper T cell.

    • a girl with nose rings staring at the camera with a cold sore on her lip

      Herpes and its relatives

      The herpes virus family are not our friends. Some are cowards; they hide from the immune system in various cells, and come out again when our systems are stressed. At least two of them cause forms of cancer.

    • a close up shot of a person with a white button up colored shirt and a red HIV ribbon pinned on the shirt

      HIV/AIDS

      An Epidemic of Infectious Immunodeficiency

    • little boy looking forlorn wearing a face mask

      Emerging infectious diseases

      What infectious diseases are on the horizon? We've allowed several dreadful viruses to spread from wild animals to domestic ones, and people.

    • women in a scarf, holding her chest and coughing

      Influenza

      What do we know about the flu?

    • COVID-19

      A deep dive into COVID-19, it's symptoms, diagnosis, and prevention protocols

    • two face mask making the shape of a cross on a red background

      End of Week 2

      Reflection on the content learned in week 2 and a glimpse of what's ahead in week 3!

  • Week 3

    Neuroscience

    • young girl with hand on her head leaning on a pile of books while reading an open book on a table

      Memory

      The hippocampus is involved in developing new memories, and is one of very few places in the brain where new cells are made in adults. We have several different categories of memory which are introduced here.

    • one little girl drawing with a colored pencil and another little girl looking at the paper

      Learning

      "Neurons that fire together, wire together." That's the mantra for this Unit. We also like: The more we know, the more we can learn. What are the characteristics of the "life long learner"?

    • a graphic of a silhouette of someone with head in knees and fragments of her silhouette are drifting away

      Depression

      We begin to look at several serious and highly prevalent mood and thought disorders. Depression would seem to be something that's "just a really bad mood," but it is associated with significant changes in brain structure.

    • distressed woman with hands on her face and hands on her head

      Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia

      Like other disorders we've discussed, there are genetic and environmental determinants of bipolar disorders and schizophrenia. Bipolar is a mood disorder, and schizophrenia is mainly a thought disorder.

    • boy with autism in a hat smiling at an elderly man also smiling at the boy

      Autism spectrum disorder

      A spectrum disorder usually means that there are people with a very debilitating disease, and others with much milder symptoms who can, with help, function well in society.

    • a light bulb graphic with a brain in it on the left and hands holding four colored puzzle pieces that fit together on the right

      Autism and brain development

      This Unit addresses the way the brain develops in childhood, and suggests ways in which the fine tuning can be different in autism spectrum disorder.

    • skeleton graphic looking back at wavy white puzzle pieces that fill the entire background

      Dementia—Alzheimer

      The emotional and financial costs of caring for people with Alzheimer disease (AD) are staggering. As people live longer, the prevalence rises, and perhaps a third of all of us will develop AD if we live long enough.

    • transparent person graphic showing skeleton and brain

      Stroke

      We look at what it is, how it happens (there are two kinds of stroke) and what we can do to treat it.

    • puzzle graphic with silhouette of a head and two puzzle pieces coming from the head

      End of Week 3

      Reflection on the content learned in week 3 and a glimpse of what's ahead in week 4!

  • Week 4

    Cancer Biology

    • zoomed in image on a woman in a pink shirt holding a pink cancer ribbon

      What is Cancer?

      Cancer can have different definitions depending on the level that is being studied: the entire tumor, the cells that it's made of, the chromosomes in those cells, and the genes within those chromosomes.

    • two hands held together, one with a wedding ring

      Diagnosis

      Cancer is often detected early because of a change in some part of the body, or other symptom like weight loss. We list some things to look for, and then survey the ways available to medical teams to make a diagnosis.

    • graphic of a giant globe with three doctors analyzing it

      Statistics

      Cancer statistics are revealing about how cancer works. It's one of the top causes of death in the richer countries, but it seems to be largely a disease of development.

    • microscope image of mutated cells

      Mutations

      Cells aren't evil; they are just obeying Darwin's "survival of the fittest" observation—ones that are mutated to grow faster, spread more, and metastasize, will be selected to do so, pretty much like weeds.

    • child in a hospital bed, shaved head, smiling at the camera

      Cancer Grades and Stages

      Grading and staging also help the team decide on the best strategy for treatment. And just as important, it allows us to compare treatments over time.

    • a hand holding a sodium chloride bag in a hospital room

      Treatment 1

      The mainstays of cancer treatment are still the three oldest strategies: surgery, chemotherapy (drugs), and radiation. They all have strengths and weaknesses.

    • male doctor talking to a female patient in a hospital bed

      Treatment 2

      This Unit starts with the present and introduces the future. Targeted or rational therapy starts with the molecular identification of a tumor's mutations and designs drugs to counter the tumor-specific mechanism.

    • woman helping another woman get a scan done for cancer

      Cancer Prevention

      Here it is: we've seen quite a lot of evidence that cancer is in part a lifestyle disease. That means we can change our lifestyles and hope to change our chances of getting cancer.

    • doctor looking into a microscope with gloves on

      End of Week 4

      You have finished the course! CONGRATS! Here is a reflection on this week and the overall course.

Who is this accredited by?

The CPD Certification Service
The CPD Certification Service:

The CPD Certification Service was established in 1996 and is the leading independent CPD accreditation institution operating across industry sectors to complement the CPD policies of professional and academic bodies.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Discuss how to make well-informed decisions about illness, wellness, and life-style choices.
  • Identify key clinical features and management strategies of common diseases discussed in the course.
  • Reflect on the information gained in this course and how it will impact your interaction with medical professionals in the future.
  • Summarize key concepts surrounding immunology, infectious disease, neuroscience, and cancer biology.
  • Explain how the immune system deals with damage or disease-causing microbes.
  • Identify the general role of mass and T cells in the immune system and their function.
  • Discuss the importance of vaccines and immunity in protecting against harmful microbes.
  • Describe diseases in which the immune system fails to function in the correct manner.
  • Identify clinical features of infections by common pathogens.
  • Summarize ways to prevent and treat infection by common pathogens.
  • Reflect on the complexity and history of antibiotic resistance.
  • Explain the basic structure and function of the brain.
  • Summarize the clinical features and management strategies for common diseases that impact brain development or function including Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, mood disorders, and autism.
  • Describe different treatment options for cancer.
  • Summarize lifestyle changes that can lower your risk for cancer.
  • Investigate resources available to learn more about cancer and clinical trials.
  • Classify brain structures by function.

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone who has specific health concerns, wants to communicate better with medical practitioners, or is considering a career in health care.

It will be most beneficial if you have already taken the Introduction to Medical Science course.

Who will you learn with?

Who developed the course?

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University of Colorado

The University of Colorado is a recognized leader in higher education on the national and global stage. We collaborate to meet the diverse needs of our students and communities. We promote innovation, encourage discovery and support the extension of knowledge in ways unique to the state of Colorado and beyond.

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Ways to learn

Choose the best way to learn for you!

Subscribe & save

$244.99 for a whole year

Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Buy this course

$109/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Limited access

Free

Sample the course materials

  • Access expires 4 Mar 2025

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Sale price available until 3 March 2025 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Sale price available until 3 March 2025 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.

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