Johns Hopkins patient safety experts to co-instruct Coursera course

Two patient safety experts from Johns Hopkins University will co-instruct a new massive open online course (MOOC), The Science of Safety in Healthcare, beginning in June.

Cheryl Dennison-Himmelfarb from the School of Nursing and Peter Pronovost from the School of Medicine will explore topics in patient safety culture, patient-centered care, teamwork, and how to improve care. The course, which begins June 3 and runs through June 30, is free and space is unlimited. It is the first Coursera course for faculty from the schools of nursing and medicine. There are currently eight Coursera offerings from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and one from the Berman Institute of Bioethics.

Dennison-Himmelfarb is an expert on improving cardiovascular care for high-risk, underserved populations. Her current research includes developing and testing an online decision support system to improve the quality of clinical care among heart failure patients. Pronovost, internationally known for his work in patient safety, is director of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins, senior vice president for patient safety and quality for Hopkins Medicine, and author of Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals: How One Doctor's Checklist Can Help Us Change Health Care From the Inside Out.