COURSE SUMMARY
This MOOC is about the clinical autopsy and learning to understand the language of the dead. It is a course conducted by professors at the University of Oviedo and by pathologists at the Central University Hospital of Asturias who believe that awareness on the importance of the post-mortem study of bodies as a current diagnostic tool should be a priority for our society. Thus, this course aims to sensitize students to investigate the main causes of death through the clinical autopsy and improving the quality of care by reducing the number of errors. We will also focus on performing autopsies in risk situations such as prions, HIV or COVID-19 infected patients, paying special attention in safety measures for the professionals involved. In this course you will learn many theoretical aspects related to the autopsy: History, types, techniques, risks, lethal diseases, neuropathology, and many more things.
This MOOC course lasts 5 weeks and it is divided into 5 units as follows:
-
Week 1: Fundamentals of the Clinical Autopsy.
-
Week 2: Materials and Methods.
-
Week 3. Autopsies and Risk (COVID-19).
-
Week 4. Main Fatal Injuries.
-
Week 5. Neuropathological Autopsies.
The course contains more than 150 minutes of videos (1 video-presentation, 5 video-guides, 5 video-lessons and 10 video-materials), 50 preliminary questions, 15 optional activities, several forums and 5 evaluation tests. Besides, following the guidelines promoted by the University of Oviedo on accessibility to resources, all videos have been subtitled and all transcripts can be accessed in English. Therefore, we invite you to familiarize yourself with the working environment at the UnioviX platform and share any question or doubt that you may have in the forums.
WARNING: In the following MOOC you can see potentially sensitive videos and images with real bodies.
Triggers: Death, dead bodies, autopsies, fetal autopsies, abortion.
Objectives
The main objectives are:
-
Create a community of people bound by the interest of improving their knowledge about the clinical autopsy.
-
Promote and foster the use of clinical autopsies as an essential diagnostic tool for reaching final diagnosis, improving our knowledge of diseases and reducing errors.
-
Raise awareness in society concerning tissue donation for research. For that, students will know how a brain biobank works as a fundamental platform in scientific progress.
REQUIREMENTS OF THE PARTICIPANTS
The course is directed to everyone interested in this field fo study, and no previous knowledge is required except for learning skills for the use of the online platform where the course is carried out. Although it is not necessary to have any previous medical knowledge, there will be some key words you should learn in order to understand some of the lessons.
EVALUATION SYSTEM
Before each unit, there is a 10-question test to determine your previous knowledge. Later, theoretical knowledge will be developed accompanied by video lessons. Some of the topics are accompanied by other video materials. After that, there will be a series of optional activities to work on the key concepts learned in each unit. There will also be forums that will allow online interactions between students. We will finally have evaluation activities in which you will have the opportunity to prove all you have learned from each unit. Thus, to go forward, you will have to pass a test that consists of 10 questions, 4 options, and only 1 is correct, and failures do not penalize.
