Mini Medical School: Introduction to Medical Science (FutureLearn)

Mini Medical School: Introduction to Medical Science (FutureLearn)

Discover the science underpinning modern medical practice today and how to maintain and promote good physical and mental health. Master the basics of medicine with the University of Colorado School of Medicine. This three-week course offers you a fascinating and informative introduction to modern medicine.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see FutureLearn's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Whether you’d like to better communicate with healthcare professionals, you’re considering a career in medicine, or you’re keen to separate medical fact from fiction in the COVID-19 era, this course will equip you with the up-to-date medical knowledge you need.
Access the latest medical science and wellness teaching
Understanding medicine and your own health is becoming a necessity in a time when anti-science disinformation is burgeoning.
On this course, you’ll study the broad spectrum of topics you’d encounter at medical school, including anatomy, physiology, body systems, cell biology, molecular biology, and genetics.
Learn key medical concepts and demystify medical jargon
You’ll be introduced to technical medical jargon and concepts explained in everyday language. Although you won’t know all of the associated medical jargon, you’ll understand the underlying medical concepts, and will build the confidence to ask your doctor to communicate with you in everyday language.
Learn about medicine to make more informed healthcare decisions
As medicine gets to be more expensive and technical, it’s likely you’ll need to be a healthcare advocate for yourself or those close to you.
This course will empower you with the medical information you need to make good decisions about your health and the health of those around you.
Study with Mini Medical School founder, Dr JJ Cohen
Lead educator and immunologist, Dr JJ Cohen, founded the Mini Medical School in 1989. You’ll learn from his unique approach and study a program attended by over 25,000 learners.
With a U.S. National Glaser Award for outstanding medical school teaching, Dr Cohen also holds honorary degrees from Sherbrooke and McGill University.

What topics will you cover?

  • Anatomy & Physiology
  • Body Systems
  • Cellular & Molecular Biology & Genetics

Learning on this course
You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Explore how to talk productively with a health care provider by asking for conversations in everyday language.
  • Discuss how to make well-informed decisions about illness, wellness, and life-style choices.

Investigate reliable and up-to-date medical information to assist making better health decisions in the future.

  • Identify different anatomical and physiological processes and associated diseases.
  • Summarize the symptoms of diseases that impact the anatomical and physiological health of a patient.
  • Reflect on the information gained in this course and how it will impact your interaction with medical professionals in the future.

Who is the course for?
This course is designed for anyone who’d like to know more about how their body works, and how to keep it working well.
This may include individuals with specific health concerns, anyone thinking about a career in healthcare and medicine, pre-med or pre-nursing students, those in nursing training programmes, home-schoolers, current or retired healthcare professionals looking to refresh their skills, and medical librarians.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Understanding Insulin (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Southampton

Understanding Insulin (FutureLearn)

Learn more about all things insulin: from how it works, to insulin types, to side effects and guidance on how to prescribe safely. The current spend on diabetes care by the NHS is estimated to be £1.6 million pounds per hour. 80% of this is spent on managing diabetes complications, the risk of which can be significantly reduced through effective blood glucose control using insulin.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
Perioperative Medicine in Action (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University College London

Perioperative Medicine in Action (FutureLearn)

Explore perioperative medicine and how you can improve care for the high risk surgical patient. Join this RCoA endorsed course. Too many patients die or suffer prolonged complications following surgery. Perioperative medicine is an emerging, multi-disciplinary approach, which tackles this issue, by optimising the care of high-risk surgical patients. It encompasses disciplines including anaesthetics, surgery, nursing, care of the elderly, physiotherapy and healthcare management.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
What Is the Body? (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Aberdeen

What Is the Body? (FutureLearn)

Get an introduction to different human body parts and their functions, from organ systems to cell structure and tissues. Explore how your body works through the study of body anatomy. How does the body work? What is it made of? What are the different parts of the human body and what are their functions? From cells to organ systems, this course will introduce you to the basic components that make up the human body.

Self Paced
3 Weeks
Why Do We Age? The Molecular Mechanisms of Ageing (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Groningen,University Medical Center Groningen - UMCG

Why Do We Age? The Molecular Mechanisms of Ageing (FutureLearn)

Why do we age? Is there a limit to human lifespan? Can we prolong our lives? Find out with this free online course. Discover the science behind the ageing process. The “why” and “how” of ageing has puzzled mankind ever since it questioned its place in the universe.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
Heart Health: A Beginner's Guide to Cardiovascular Disease (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Reading

Heart Health: A Beginner's Guide to Cardiovascular Disease (FutureLearn)

Learn more about how your heart works, the causes of heart disease and how to keep your heart healthy with this free online course. Learn how to keep your heart healthy. Your heart beats around 100,000 times a day, pumping blood around your body to deliver oxygen and nutrients, while taking away waste products. When your heart is unhealthy, it can’t perform this vital task so effectively.

Self Paced
4 Weeks
Dysphagia: Swallowing Difficulties and Medicines (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of East Anglia

Dysphagia: Swallowing Difficulties and Medicines (FutureLearn)

This course will enhance the knowledge of any person involved in the administration of medicines to patients with dysphagia. The course offers an opportunity to network with other learners and with the creators of the course through discussions, graphs and social networking features and to share knowledge with other learners and professionals.

Self Paced
5-12 Weeks
So You Want to Study Life Science? (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
University of Glasgow

So You Want to Study Life Science? (FutureLearn)

Explore the exciting subjects within life sciences and the rewarding careers that studying life sciences at university lead to. This short, free online course will introduce you to studying life sciences at university level.We’ll take you on a whistle stop tour of the exciting world of life sciences, exploring the vast array of subjects within the discipline – from anatomy to zoology and everything in between, including immunology, cellular and molecular biology, genetics, physiology and parasitology.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Genomic Technologies in Clinical Diagnostics: Next Generation Sequencing (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
St George's, University of London

Genomic Technologies in Clinical Diagnostics: Next Generation Sequencing (FutureLearn)

Understand new and established genomic sequencing technologies, and how to apply them in clinical practice. Powerful new technologies have been driving forward immense and exciting changes in clinical practice. The days of peering down the microscope to detect chromosome abnormalities are gone, replaced by chromosome analysis at the genomic level.

Self Paced
2 Weeks
Exercise Prescription for the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (FutureLearn) FutureLearn
Trinity College Dublin

Exercise Prescription for the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (FutureLearn)

Learn how physical exercise can help patients including those with cardiovascular disease, mental health problems and cancer. In the last few decades physical exercise has become well established as a tool to prevent and treat disease. Perceptions within the healthcare sector of exercise and its prescription as a treatment have changed dramatically in recent years.

Self Paced
2 Weeks