Free online course on personalised medicine

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is inviting participation in its upcoming massive open online course (MOOC) ‘Myths and Realities of Personalised Medicine: The Genetic Revolution’.

The eight-week course will cover personalised medicine - the idea of tailoring treatment to individual patients based on their genetic code - from an Australian perspective. Through exercises such as video lectures, readings and quizzes, delivered by a variety of expert clinicians and researchers currently working in the field, the course will discuss both the benefits and controversies surrounding the genetic revolution.

According to course lead Dr Caroline Ford, personalised medicine holds great promise for patients worldwide yet also raises many ethical, cultural and legal dilemmas. She explained, “Genetic testing will provide patients with greater ownership over their health decisions, but it’s important that they are well informed before they make major decisions based on these tests.”

Fellow course lead Dr Orin Chisholm is urging health practitioners to enrol in the course. He noted that many healthcare professionals did not learn about the human genome in their training, “yet some will be faced with making difficult decisions regarding their patient’s health, such as counselling a patient about an unexpected genetic finding”.

The course runs from 11 May to 22 July. Enrolment is free and open to anyone around the world, from high-school dropouts to PhDs. For more information, visit https://www.coursera.org/course/personalisedmed