One Health: Pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response (Coursera)

Offered by Politecnico di Milano,
One Health: Pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response (Coursera)

This course was developed by the Karolinska Institutet (KI) and the Federation of the European Academies of Medicine (FEAM) as part of the research project 'Pan-European Response to the Impacts of the COVID-19 and future Pandemics and Epidemics' (PERISCOPE). Funded by the European Commission Research Funding programme Horizon 2020 under the Grant Agreement number 101016233, PERISCOPE investigates the broad socio-economic and behavioural impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, to make Europe more resilient and prepared for future large-scale risks.

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

This course is primarily aimed at highly specialised technical professional groups (healthcare authorities, policymakers, researchers and other academics) interested in learning more about the One Health approach. The modules are for participants who are likely to have previous knowledge about the concept in one specific area or pillar but not necessarily in all of them.
The course will provide basic knowledge and contextualisation of One Health in creeping crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Attending the course, participants will identify enablers, limitations, barriers, and next steps in and to the One Health concept and operationalisation.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Introduction: One Health in an interconnected world
The intro module consists of two lessons, where the first lesson aims to give a short description of the history and journey of One Health as a framework and the notion of human-animal-environmental health interconnection that it is built upon. The second lesson is an introduction to "creeping crisis", a concept to explain crisis that evolve over time and demands new toolboxes to tackle. After completing the module, participants should have an overview of One Health’s history as well as a deeper understanding of One Health, and the importance in exploring and understanding actual and forthcoming issues that can be found at the human-animal-environmental interface and manifest a creeping crisis.

WEEK 2
One Health’s current status – gaps, obstacles & imbalances
The second module consists of four lessons where the general aim is to explore One Health’s current status and identify ways of moving forward to strengthen the concept’s impact on pandemic preparedness and prevention. This by highlighting the gaps, obstacles, and imbalances that exist within the framework, especially regarding the three sectors of human, animal, and environmental health. The first and second lessons present One Health from a legal perspective and explains how the legal system could be more aligned to One Health in order to safeguard human, animal and environmental health. The third lecture continues where the two previous lessons took off and further explores anthropocentrism and a particular blind spot within One Health: human-animal relations, whereas lesson four focuses on the relation between the health of nature and One Health in the context of pandemic risk and mitigation.

WEEK 3
From theory to practice: how to translate evidence into policy.
In the previous modules, you learned more about the struggle to define "One Health". Due to the complexity of the concept, a correct conceptualization of One Health can enhance its implementation. But how can we translate theory to practice? Policymakers need evidence to inform policy, and scientists play a key role in the process. In this module, you will access resources that reverberate the literature debate around the science-policy nexus. Finally, the module is preparatory for the following ones, which will bring to your attention some case studies where the One Health approach was put into practice and implemented. For this purpose, in this module, you will read more about the operationalization of One Health.

WEEK 4
The pillars of One Health: best practices.
As your familiarity with the conceptualization of One Health and the process to operationalize it has grown, the fourth and the fifth module will provide you with some case studies. Lecturers will discuss successes and challenges in implementing One Health, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic context. This module will zoom into each of the pillars of One Health: human health and food safety, animal health, and environmental health.

WEEK 5
One Health: an interdisciplinary approach.
Now that you have deepened your knowledge of each pillar of the One Health approach, you will embrace the concept in its oneness and interdisciplinarity. The fifth module groups case studies that are relevant to topics transversal to human, animal, and environmental health. Particularly, you will learn more about best practices and challenges in implementing One Health when addressing zoonoses, Anti Microbial Resistance (AMR), and climate change.

WEEK 6
How can global coordination and governance help the implementation of One Health?
In the previous module, you realised how challenging the implementation of One Health could be thanks to the case studies provided by lecturers. This module will offer you an overview of the existing coordination and governance mechanisms to enhance the One Health implementation at the global and regional levels. Some institutions are already a solid reality, others were recently created or are still discussed. This module will nudge you to reflect on the future of Global Health Governance and One Health.

WEEK 7
One Health and beyond: the potential of expanded connectedness to tackle creeping crises.
In this final module, you will hear from the MOOC's organisers: Walter Osika, Senior Specialist at KI; Elin Pöllänen, Research assistant at KI; Emma Martinez Sanchez, Senior Scientific Policy Officer at FEAM; and, Claudia Granaldi, Junior Policy Officer at FEAM. The coordinators of the course will discuss the main take-home messages that emerged from each module and express their views concerning the potential development of 'One Health'. Do not miss the final discussion 'One Health & you'!

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

Related Courses

Evidence-based Toxicology (Coursera) Coursera
Johns Hopkins University

Evidence-based Toxicology (Coursera)

Welcome to the Evidence-based Toxicology (EBT) course. In medicine and healthcare, evidence-based medicine has revolutionized the way that information is evaluated transparently and objectively. Over the past ten years, a movement in North America and Europe has attempted to translate this revolution to the field of toxicology.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Career 911: Your Future Job in Medicine and Healthcare (Coursera) Coursera
Northwestern University

Career 911: Your Future Job in Medicine and Healthcare (Coursera)

This course aims to help high school students, recent graduates, and those considering career transitions explore health care career options and learn strategies for entry into the health care workforce and health related fields. There are lots of amazing job opportunities in medicine and healthcare! Join us, as we share the strategies and secrets for getting those jobs.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Childbirth: A Global Perspective (Coursera) Coursera
Emory University

Childbirth: A Global Perspective (Coursera)

This course will review challenges for maternal and newborn health in the developing world, where a great many women and babies are suffering from complications during pregnancy, childbirth, and the days following birth. Themes covered include the epidemiology of maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity, relevant issues for the global health workforce, community-based interventions to improve maternal and newborn health and survival, and sociocultural dynamics surrounding birth.

Aug 24th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health (Coursera) Coursera
University of Geneva

Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health (Coursera)

This MOOC is the first of its kind, since it addresses critical issues related to drugs from a multidisciplinary, health and human rights-based approach. Throughout the course you will cover a range of questions including what are drugs and why they controlled? What are the benefits and harms of taking drugs? How public health policies can address drug use?

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Medical Cannabis for Pain Control (Coursera) Coursera
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

Medical Cannabis for Pain Control (Coursera)

Cannabis is a group of flowering plants that has been long used for industrial, recreational and medical purposes. When relating to its medical use, the terms "Medical Cannabis" or "Medical marijuana" has become prevalent. In this course we will use the term "Medical Cannabis". Nowadays, Medical Cannabis involves multiple medical disciplines such as neuroscience, pain, pharmacology, oncology, psychiatry and more. Moreover, it has cultural, agricultural and social, legal and political implications.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
The Brain and Space (Coursera) Coursera
Duke University

The Brain and Space (Coursera)

This course is about how the brain creates our sense of spatial location from a variety of sensory and motor sources, and how this spatial sense in turn shapes our cognitive abilities. Knowing where things are is effortless. But “under the hood,” your brain must figure out even the simplest of details about the world around you and your position in it.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Life, Health and Radiation (Coursera) Coursera
The University of Sydney

Life, Health and Radiation (Coursera)

Radiation is all around us - without it we wouldn’t exist. Yet the word has become synonymous with danger, death and disaster. This MOOC will allow the world to see radiation in a new light, to expose its benefits as well as its risks. X-ray radiation, for example, is a scientific and medical discovery that has improved or prolonged billions of lives. Most of us have had an X-ray at some point in our life, at the Dentist, in a hospital or clinic. Yet few people really understand what X-rays are or where they come from.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Population Health: Fundamentals of Population Health Management (Coursera) Coursera
Leiden University

Population Health: Fundamentals of Population Health Management (Coursera)

What are the principles of Population Health Management as a pro-active management approach to improve health and to tackle health disparities? In this course we will discuss the basic principles of Population Health Management that will help you as (future) health care professional or policymaker to analyse current healthcare challenges and to design possible solutions using the Population Health Management Approach.

Aug 17th 2026
4 Weeks