Online courses directory (10358)

This class introduces scientific, economic, and ecological issues underlying the threat of global climate change, and the institutions engaged in negotiating an international response. It also develops an integrated approach to analysis of climate change processes, and assessment of proposed policy measures, drawing on research and model development within the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

15.389A Global Entrepreneurship Lab: Asia-Pacific enables teams of students to work with the top management of global start-ups and gain experience in running, and consulting to, a new enterprise outside the United States. The focus is on start-ups operating in emerging markets throughout the world, with a special focus on the Asia-Pacific region. The course combines an internship in a growing firm with in-class discussions of the issues and policies that affect the climate for innovation and start-up success around the world.

Special Features

15.389A is part of a two-section course and includes materials that cover entrepreneurship in the Asia-Pacific region. 15.389B Global Entrepreneurship Lab: Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa is also available on OpenCourseWare and covers topics pertinent to these additional regions.

15.389B Global Entrepreneurship Lab: Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa enables teams of students to work with the top management of global start-ups and gain experience in running, and consulting to, a new enterprise outside the United States. The focus is on start-ups operating in emerging markets throughout the world, with a special focus on Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. The course combines an internship in a growing firm with in-class discussions of the issues and policies that affect the climate for innovation and start-up success around the world.

Special Features

15.389B is part of a two-section course and includes materials that cover entrepreneurship in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. 15.389A Global Entrepreneurship Lab: Asia-Pacific is also available on OpenCourseWare and covers topics pertinent to these additional regions.

Learn about the best environmental technologies for a sustainable development and how they are managed in various settings around the world.

How will we feed an extra two billion people by the middle of this century?

For the first time in history, the global demand for freshwater is overtaking its supply in many parts of the world. The U.N. predicts that by 2025, more than half of the countries in the world will be experiencing water stress or outright shortages. Lack of water can cause disease, food shortages, starvation, migrations, political conflict, and even lead to war. Models of cooperation, both historic and contemporary, show the way forward. The first half of the course details the multiple facets of the water crisis. Topics include water systems, water transfers, dams, pollution, climate change, scarcity, water conflict/cooperation, food security, and agriculture. The second half of the course describes innovative solutions: Adaptive technologies and adaptation through policy, planning, management, economic tools, and finally, human behaviors required to preserve this precious and imperiled resource. Several field trips to water/wastewater/biosolids reuse and water-energy sites will help us to better comprehend both local and international challenges and solutions.

For the first time in history, the global demand for freshwater is overtaking its supply in many parts of the world. The U.N. predicts that by 2025, more than half of the countries in the world will be experiencing water stress or outright shortages. Lack of water can cause disease, food shortages, starvation, migrations, political conflict, and even lead to war. Models of cooperation, both historic and contemporary, show the way forward. The first half of the course details the multiple facets of the water crisis. Topics include water systems, water transfers, dams, pollution, climate change, scarcity, water conflict/cooperation, food security, and agriculture. The second half of the course describes innovative solutions: Adaptive technologies and adaptation through policy, planning, management, economic tools, and finally, human behaviors required to preserve this precious and imperiled resource. Several field trips to water/wastewater/biosolids reuse and water-energy sites will help us to better comprehend both local and international challenges and solutions.

Is humanitarianism an effective, justifiable and sustainable response to ill-health, inequality, injustice and war?

This introductory global health course aims to frame global health's collection of problems and actions within a particular biosocial perspective. It develops a toolkit of interdisciplinary analytical approaches and uses them to examine historical and contemporary global health initiatives with careful attention to a critical sociology of knowledge. Four physician-anthropologists - Paul Farmer, Arthur Kleinman, Anne Becker, and Salmaan Keshavjee - draw on experience working in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Americas to investigate what the field of global health comprises, how global health problems are defined and constructed, and how global health interventions play out in both expected and unexpected ways.

The course seeks to inspire and teach the following principles:

A global awareness. This course aims to enable learners to recognize the role of distinctive traditions, governments, and histories in shaping health and well being. In addition, rather than framing a faceless mass of poor populations as the subject of global health initiatives, the course uses ethnographies and case studies to situate global health problems in relation to the lives of individuals, families, and communities.

A foundation in social and historical analysis. The course demonstrates the value of social theory and historical analysis in understanding health and illness at individual and societal levels.

An ethical engagement. Throughout the course, learners will be asked to critically evaluate the ethical frameworks that have underpinned historical and contemporary engagement in global health. Learners will be pushed to consider the moral questions of inequality and suffering as well as to critically evaluate various ethical frameworks that motivate and structure attempts to redress these inequities.

A sense of inspiration and possibility. While the overwhelming challenges of global health could all too easily engender cynicism, passivity, and helplessness, learners will observe that no matter how complex the field of global health and no matter how steep the challenges, it is possible to design, implement, and foster programs and policies that make enormous positive change in the lives of the world’s poorest and suffering people.

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Disease has no respect for country borders and increased global travel has fueled the spread of infectious disease, as evidenced by the Ebola virus epidemic. Chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, initially confined to the developed world, now exist side by side with malnutrition in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Global warming is widening the endemicity of vector-borne diseases.

In this course, we will explore ways to leverage information technology to combat disease and promote health, especially in resource-constrained settings. Technology is a driving force that sweeps across nations even faster than disease and with the spread of mobile phones, which bring computational power and data to our fingertips, new paradigms in tracking and battling disease have been discovered.

This course will explore innovations in information systems in developing countries, and focus not only on the importance of technology, but also on broader issues necessary for its success, such as quality improvement, project management, and leadership skills. Ultimately, health care delivery systems require fundamental and sound operations, such as physical infrastructure and supply-chain management, to deliver high-quality care. Technology is simply a tool to help facilitate this process.

The quality of care theme is critical to this course. The first step stakeholders in health systems should focus on prior to introducing an innovation is to establish a culture of quality improvement and patient safety. An information system can then play a facilitative role by enabling care coordination, tracking processes and outcomes, informing decision making, and fostering learning through data analysis.

An information system without an accompanying organizational transformation risks reinforcing the same failed processes. Using technology to improve access to care without any other quality improvement elements will yield the same and not necessarily better results, but more of them. Innovations need to address gaps in quality and demonstrate improvement in health outcomes, otherwise they won’t sustain or scale.

Lastly, we will discuss our attempts to leverage troves of data to define best practice and how we must keep the patient perspective and health at the center of everything we do.

This course is targeted toward individuals interested in designing or implementing a health information and communication technology (ICT) solution in the developing world. Implementing a health information technology project requires multidisciplinary teams. Thus, with this course, we hope to bring together individuals from a variety of disciplines—computer science, medicine, engineering, public health, policy, and business.

ALISON Global Health Initiative is a series of free online courses created to raise public awareness and understanding of common diseases that affect millions of people worldwide. In this course important aspects of the hepatitis B are covered in detail. The course begins by defining what hepatitis B is, and important facts and statistics about this medical condition. It then goes on to describe aspects such as symptoms and risk factors that are associated with the disease and how hepatitis B can be diagnosed and prevented. Finally, the course describes how a patient can successfully live with hepatitis B and how family, friends and colleagues can cope with and support a person with hepatitis B. The information in this course will be of great interest to all learners, especially those who have been diagnosed with hepatitis B, and who would like to know more about the disease, its treatment and coping with it. It will also be of great interest to all healthcare professionals who would like access to easy to understand facts and information about hepatitis B that they can share with their patients. <br />

ALISON Global Health Initiative is a series of free online courses created to raise public awareness and understanding of common diseases that affect millions of people worldwide. In this course important aspects of the Hepatitis C are covered in detail. The course begins by defining what Hepatitis C is, and important facts and statistics about this medical condition. It then goes on to describe aspects such as symptoms and risk factors that are associated with the disease and how Hepatitis C can be diagnosed and prevented. Finally, the course describes how a patient can successfully live with Hepatitis C and how family, friends and colleagues can cope with and support a person with Hepatitis C. The information in this course will be of great interest to all learners, especially those who have been diagnosed with Hepatitis C, and who would like to know more about the disease, its treatment and coping with it. It will also be of great interest to all healthcare professionals who would like access easy to understand facts and information about Hepatitis C that they can share with their patients. <br />

ALISON Global Health Initiative is a series of free online courses created to raise public awareness and understanding of common diseases that affect millions of people worldwide. In this course important aspects of the hypertension are covered in detail. The course begins by defining what hypertension is, and important facts and statistics about this medical condition. It then goes on to describe aspects such as symptoms and risk factors that are associated with the disease and how hypertension can be diagnosed and prevented. Finally, the course describes how a patient can successfully live with hypertension and how family, friends and colleagues can cope with and support a person with hypertension. The information in this course will be of great interest to all learners, especially those who have been diagnosed with hypertension, and who would like to know more about the disease, its treatment and coping with it. It will also be of great interest to all healthcare professionals who would like access to easy to understand facts and information about hypertension that they can share with their patients. <br />

ALISON Global Health Initiative is a series of free online courses created to raise public awareness and understanding of common diseases that affect millions of people worldwide. In this course important aspects of the Malaria are covered in detail. The course begins by defining what Malaria is, and important facts and statistics about this medical condition. It then goes on to describe aspects such as symptoms and risk factors that are associated with the disease and how Malaria can be diagnosed and prevented. Finally, the course describes how a patient can be treated for Malaria. The information in this course will be of great interest to all learners, especially those who with exposure to Malaria, and who would like to know more about the disease, its treatment. It will also be of great interest to all healthcare professionals who would like access easy to understand facts and information about Malaria that they can share with their patients. <br />

ALISON Global Health Initiative is a series of free online courses created to raise public awareness and understanding of common diseases that affect millions of people worldwide. In this second course important aspects of the disease COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) are covered in detail. The course begins by defining what COPD is, and detailing the two types of COPD and important facts and statistics about the disease. It then goes on to describe aspects such as symptoms and risk factors that are associated with the disease and how COPD can be diagnosed and prevented. Finally, the course describes how a patient can live with COPD and how family, friends and colleagues can cope with and support a person with COPD. The information in this course will be of great interest to all learners, especially those who have been diagnosed with COPD, and who would like to know more about the disease, its treatment and coping with it. It will also be of great interest to all healthcare professionals who would like access to easy to understand facts and information about diabetes that they can share with their patients. <br />

ALISON Global Health Initiative è una piattaforma che fornisce una serie di corsi gratuiti online creati per sensibilizzare l'opinione pubblica e aumentare la comprensione delle malattie più comuni che colpiscono milioni di persone in tutto il mondo. In questo secondo corso sono trattati gli aspetti piu’ importanti della BPCO.Il corso inizia con la definizione di che cos’e’ la BPCO, elenca le diverse forme della malattia, i meccanismi si cui agisce e tratta la diffusione mondiale della malattia. Si passa quindi a descrivere i sintomi e fattori di rischio che sono associati con la malattia e come la BPCO possa essere diagnosticata e prevenuta. Infine, il corso descrive come un paziente puo’ convivere con la BPCO e e come la famiglia, i familiari, gli amici e i colleghi possono affrontare e sostenere una persona con la BPCO. Le informazioni contenute in questo corso saranno di grande interesse per tutti gli studenti , in particolare quelli che hanno ricevuto una diagnosi, e che vorrebbero saperne di più sulla malattia, il suo trattamento e come si affronta questa malattia. Sarà anche di grande interesse per tutti gli operatori sanitari che desiderano accedere a informazioni sulla BPCO di facile comprensione da poter condividere con i loro pazienti.<br />

ALISON Global Health Initiative is a series of free online courses created to raise public awareness and understanding of common diseases that affect millions of people worldwide. In this first course important aspects of the disease diabetes are covered in detail. The course begins by defining what diabetes is, and lists the three types of diabetes and important facts and statistics about the disease. It then goes on to describe aspects such as symptoms and risk factors that are associated with the disease and how diabetes can be diagnosed and prevented. Finally, the course describes how a patient can live with diabetes and how family, friends and colleagues can cope with and support a person with diabetes. The information in this course will be of great interest to all learners, especially those who have been diagnosed with diabetes, and who would like to know more about the disease, its treatment and coping with it. It will also be of great interest to all healthcare professionals who would like access to easy to understand facts and information about diabetes that they can share with their patients.

ALISON Global Health Initiative è una piattaforma che fornisce una serie di corsi gratuiti online creati per sensibilizzare l'opinione pubblica e aumentare la comprensione delle malattie più comuni che colpiscono milioni di persone in tutto il mondo. In questo primo corso sono trattati nel dettaglio i piu’ importanti aspetti del diabete. Il corso inizia con la definizione di che cos’e’ il diabete, elenca i tre tipi di diabete, i meccanismi si cui agisce e tratta la diffusione mondiale della malattia. Si passa quindi a descrivere i sintomi e fattori di rischio che sono associati alla malattia e come il diabete può essere diagnosticato e prevenuto. Infine, il corso descrive come un paziente puo’ convivere con il diabete e come la famiglia, i familiari, gli amici e i colleghi possono affrontare e sostenere una persona con diabete. Le informazioni contenute in questo corso saranno di grande interesse per tutti gli studenti, in particolare quelli che hanno ricevuto una diagnosi, e che vorrebbero saperne di più sulla malattia, il suo trattamento e come si affronta questa malattia. Sarà anche di grande interesse per tutti gli operatori sanitari che desiderano accedere a informazioni sul diabete di facile comprensione da poter condividere con i loro pazienti.<br />

In this three-day workshop, students will get a broad introduction to global health issues. We will look at one particular non-governmental organization in India that works to improve health across the lifespan by empowering existing community resources to provide appropriate physical, psychological and social therapies, focusing on child development, adolescent and youth health, mental health, and chronic disease. This workshop equips student to explore novel ideas and technologies with an inspiring and ground-breaking Indian NGO.

Fulfills the Sloan Innovation Period (SIP) elective requirement. SIP occurs at the midpoint of each semester providing students with an intensive week of experiential leadership learning, as well as exposure to groundbreaking faculty work. It allows students to engage in intellectual exploration outside the classroom. SIP degree requirements include core courses in ethics and leadership as well as electives.

This introductory course, first delivered in September 2016, explores how multidisciplinary teams can work more effectively together to address global health needs.

Whether you seek a career in international health or medicine, volunteer to serve those less fortunate, or work in an institutional setting such as a clinic, hospital, or public health agency, it is important to understand the sources and movement of diseases.

The world continues to grow smaller, with international travel, a global economy, and a changing environment contributing to the emergence of new diseases and the spread of existing ones. Understanding these connections -- and how they impact the farthest reaches of the globe – is becoming an essential skill in international development, humanitarian assistance, business and commerce, and at all levels of healthcare.

The 2013-2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa offers a window through which global health can be examined in a variety of disciplines. A Toronto medical center and Dallas hospital are far removed from the outbreaks of SARS in China and Ebola in Guinea, yet those diseases arrived and created crises within these facilities and beyond. Research has shown that health security contributes to civil order, economic growth, and stable governments. It has also demonstrated that every nation bears the economic and human burden of disease, illness, and injury.

The director general of the World Health Organization, multiple world leaders, and innumerable health authorities have called for greater awareness and leadership in global health. That journey begins here.