Online courses directory (2511)

This course is an introduction to basic NMR theory. Examples of biochemical data obtained using NMR are summarized along with other related experiments. Students participate in detailed study of NMR imaging techniques, including discussions of basic cross-sectional image reconstruction, image contrast, flow and real-time imaging, and hardware design considerations. Exposure to laboratory NMR spectroscopic and imaging equipment is included.

This course consists of a series of seminars focused on the development of professional skills. Each semester focuses on a different topic, resulting in a repeating cycle that covers medical ethics, responsible conduct of research, written and oral technical communication, and translational issues. Material and activities include guest lectures, case studies, interactive small group discussions, and role-playing simulations.

This course is a collaborative offering of Sana, Partners in Health, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). The goal of this course is the development of innovations in information systems for developing countries that will (1) translate into improvement in health outcomes, (2) strengthen the existing organizational infrastructure, and (3) create a collaborative ecosystem to maximize the value of these innovations. The course will be taught by guest speakers who are internationally recognized experts in the field and who, with their operational experiences, will outline the challenges they faced and detail how these were addressed.

This OCW site combines resources from the initial Spring 2011 offering of the course (numbered HST.184) and the Spring 2012 offering (numbered HST.S14).

Topics for this course are based primarily on reading and discussions of original research literature that cover the analysis as well as the underlying physical and physiological mechanisms of acoustic signals in the auditory periphery. Topics include the acoustics, mechanics, and hydrodynamics of sound transmission; the biophysical basis for cochlear amplification; the physiology of hair-cell transduction and synaptic transmission; efferent feedback control; the analysis and coding of simple and complex sounds by the inner ear; and the physiological bases for hearing disorders.

In this course, experimental approaches to the study of hearing and deafness are presented through lectures, laboratory exercises and discussions of the primary literature on the auditory periphery. Topics include inner-ear development, functional anatomy of the inner ear, cochlear mechanics and micromechanics, mechano-electric transduction by hair cells, outer hair cells' electromotility and the cochlear amplifier, otoacoustic emissions, synaptic transmission, stimulus coding in auditory nerve responses, efferent control of cochlear function, damage and repair of hair-cell organs, and sensorineural hearing loss.

This course is a survey of perceptual and cognitive aspects of the psychology of music, with special emphasis on underlying neuronal and neurocomputational representations and mechanisms. Basic perceptual dimensions of hearing (pitch, timbre, consonance/roughness, loudness, auditory grouping) form salient qualities, contrasts, patterns and streams that are used in music to convey melody, harmony, rhythm and separate voices. Perceptual, cognitive, and neurophysiological aspects of the temporal dimension of music (rhythm, timing, duration, temporal expectation) are explored. Special topics include comparative, evolutionary, and developmental psychology of music perception, biological vs. cultural influences, Gestaltist vs. associationist vs. schema-based theories, comparison of music and speech perception, parallels between music cognition and language, music and cortical action, and the neural basis of music performance.

An introductory course in the molecular biology of the auditory system. First half focuses on human genetics and molecular biology, covering fundamentals of pedigree analysis, linkage analysis, molecular cloning, and gene analysis as well as ethical/legal issues, all in the context of an auditory disorder. Second half emphasizes molecular approaches to function and dysfunction of the cochlea, and is based on readings and discussion of research literature.

This course explores the theory and practice of scientific modeling in the context of auditory and speech biophysics. Based on seminar-style discussions of the research literature, the class draws on examples from hearing and speech, and explores general, meta-theoretical issues that transcend the particular subject matter. Examples include: What is a model? What is the process of model building? What are the different approaches to modeling? What is the relationship between theory and experiment? How are models tested? What constitutes a good model?

This innovative, trans-faculty subject teaches how information technologies (IT) are reshaping and redefining the health care marketplace through improved economies of scale, greater technical efficiencies in the delivery of care to patients, advanced tools for patient education and self-care, network integrated decision support tools for clinicians, and the emergence of e-commerce in health care. Student tutorials provide an opportunity for interactive discussion. Interdisciplinary project teams comprised of Harvard and MIT graduate students in medicine, business, law, education, engineering, computer science, public health, and government collaborate to design innovative IT applications. Projects are presented during the final class.

Starting in Spring 2010, this course will be titled Enabling Technology Innovation in Healthcare and the Life Sciences.

In this course, social, ethical and clinical issues associated with the development of new biotechnologies and their integration into clinical practice is discussed. Basic scientists, clinicians, bioethicists, and social scientists present on the following four general topics: changing political economy of biotech research; problems associated with the adaption of new biotechnologies and findings from molecular biology for clinical settings; the ethical issues that emerge from clinical research and clinical use of new technologies; and the broader social ethics of access and inequality.

This class provides a space for medical students and MD/PhD students, as well as HASTS (History, Anthropology, Science, Technology, and Society) PhD students to discuss social and ethical issues in the biosciences and biotechnologies as they are being developed. Discussions are with course faculty and with leading figures in developing technologies such as George Daley or George Church in stem cell or genomics research, Bruce Walker or Pardis Sabeti in setting up laboratories in Africa, Paul Farmer and Partners in Health colleagues in building local support systems and first world quality care in Haiti, Peru, and Rwanda, and Amy Farber in building patient-centered therapeutic-outcome research for critical but "orphan" diseases. Goals include stimulating students to think about applying their learning in Boston to countries around the world, including using the experiences they have had in their home countries or research experience abroad. Goals also include a mix of patient-doctor care perspectives from medical anthropology, and moving upstream in the research chain to questions of how to move discoveries from basic research through the pipelines into clinical and bedside care.