Massive Open Online Courses on health and medicine: review

Background: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become immensely popular in a short span of time. However, there is very little research exploring MOOCs in the discipline of Health and Medicine. This paper is aimed to fill this void by providing a review of Health and Medicine related MOOCs. Objective: Provide a review of Health and Medicine related MOOCs offered by various MOOC platforms within the year 2013. Analyze and compare the various offerings, their target audience, typical length of a course and credentials offered. Discuss opportunities and challenges presented by MOOCs in the discipline of Health and Medicine. Methods: Health and Medicine related MOOCs were gathered using several methods to ensure the richness and completeness of data. Identified MOOC platform websites were used to gather the lists of offerings. In parallel, these MOOC platforms were contacted to access official data on their offerings. Two MOOC aggregator sites (Class Central and MOOC List) were also consulted to gather data on MOOC offerings. Eligibility criteria were defined to concentrate on the courses that were offered in 2013 and primarily on the subject ‘Health and Medicine’. All language translations in this paper were achieved using Google Translate. Results: The search identified 225 courses out of which 98 were eligible for the review (n = 98). 58% (57) of the MOOCs considered were offered on the Coursera platform and 94% (92) of all the MOOCs were offered in English. 90 MOOCs were offered by universities and the John Hopkins University offered the largest number of MOOCs (12). Only three MOOCs were offered by developing countries (China, West Indies, and Saudi Arabia). The duration of MOOCs varied from three weeks to 20 weeks with an average length of 6.7 weeks. On average MOOCs expected a participant to work on the material for 4.2 hours a week. Verified Certificates were offered by 14 MOOCs while three others offered other professional recognition. Conclusions: The review presents evidence to suggest that MOOCs can be used as a way to provide continuous medical education. It also shows the potential of MOOCs as a means of increasing health literacy among the public.

Animal health and welfare in organic livestock production in Europe: Current state and future challenges

Existing data on animal health and welfare in organic livestock production systems in the European Community countries are reviewed in the light of the demands and challenges of the recently implemented EU regulation on organic livestock production. The main conclusions and recommendations of a three-year networking project on organic livestock production are summarised and the future challenges to organic livestock production in terms of welfare and health management are discussed. The authors conclude that, whilst the available data are limited and the implementation of the EC regulation is relatively recent, there is little evidence to suggest that organic livestock management causes major threats to animal health and welfare in comparison with conventional systems. There are, however, some well-identified areas, like parasite control and balanced ration formulation, where efforts are needed to find solutions that meet with organic standard requirements and guarantee high levels of health and welfare. It is suggested that, whilst organic standards offer an implicit framework for animal health and welfare management, there is a need to solve apparent conflicts between the organic farming objectives in regard to environment, public health, farmer income and animal health and welfare. The key challenges for the future of organic livestock production in Europe are related to the feasibility of implementing improved husbandry inputs and the development of evidence-based decision support systems for health and feeding management.

Does milk consumption contribute to cardiometabolic health and overall diet quality?

Although milk consumption is recommended in most dietary guidelines around the world, its contribution to overall diet quality remains a matter of debate in the scientific community as well as in the public. This paper summarizes the discussion among experts in the field on the place of milk in a balanced, healthy diet. The evidence to date suggests at least a neutral effect of milk intake on health outcomes. The possibility that milk intake is simply a marker of higher nutritional quality diets cannot be ruled out. This review also identifies a number of key research gaps pertaining to the impact of milk consumption on health. These need to be addressed to better inform future dietary guidelines.