General guide of the course: Objectives

This course addresses the role of the clinical autopsy in the 21^st century. Therefore, we will explain the most basic fundamentals; material and methodology; risks of doing an autopsy and high-risk autopsies; and some of the main lethal injuries that can cause death. In addition, we will explain the hidden face of clinical autopsies, that is to say, some neuropathological procedures such as the brain and spinal cord extractions. Finally, we will overview some characteristics of brain biobanks as the backbone of research in human brain tissues.

This course is offered by the University of Oviedo and developed by a teaching team of professors and pathologists from the University of Oviedo and the Central University Hospital of Asturias (Anatomic Pathology Service).

2. Objectives

This course aims to sensitize students in the use of clinical autopsies as a medical tool to find out the main cause of death in patients and subsequently, to improve the quality of care by reducing the number of errors. To improve awareness about the clinical autopsy and the principal role of postmortem studies is a major goal for the teachers of this MOOC. Apart from that, we will also pay special attention in some other important issues such as high-risk autopsies, methodology, materials, extraction protocols and we will describe some of the main disease that are incompatible with life.

The main objectives of this course are to follow:

1. Teach the fundamentals of clinical autopsies, materials and methods, risks, and lethal diseases.

2. Create a community of people with the common interest of spending some time learning together new concepts about the clinical autopsy.

3. Promote the use of clinical autopsy as an essential diagnostic tool to advance in the knowledge of diseases and therefore to minimize errors.

4. Raise awareness in society about tissue donation for research, especially brain tissue through brain biobanks, which is a fundamental platform for human research progress.