Brief background of this blog

I am a biology MOOC course evangelist. Medicine is changing due to discoveries in genomics that are happening right now. We all need to get the right information about that (hope; not hype).

I started this blog, Ethics, Death & Health 2.0, in March 2005, in France, under French name "éthique et transplantation d'organes". Back then I was working with Intuitive Surgical Europe, Marketing. Having heard some persistant polemics among surgeons and other physicians about "brain death", I decided to start a blog to write about these polemics and see if people would respond. I intended to say just a few things actually but the blog went live (mainly on this topic, I'm afraid) until end of 2010, with testimonials coming from parents of deceased "donors" (these "donors" were young or elderly people), transplant surgeons, transplant patients, patients awaiting an organ, associations promoting organ donation, even people who were asked to donate vital organs from a dying loved one would seek counsel...

Did you know that French citizens are not allowed to have their genome sequenced? It is forbidden by law. Consent to "post-mortem" organ donation is written in the French law.

End of 2010 I met with Steve Jobs (surprise!!) who told me my blog was "stupid," as "people need hope". I was instructed to follow MITx MOOCs in genomics, as it was going to be "the future of medicine". I earned myself three edX-MITx certificates, 7.00x, 7.28x1 & 7.QBWx (no scientific background, PhD in German literature!). Ethics, Death & Health 2.0 is a blog about MOOCs in genomics, wet lab (biology) + dry lab (python, MATLAB) = quantitative biology; breaking news in genomics & "the creative destruction of medicine" and... genomic entertainment (I'm a writer).

I am very grateful for MITxBio MOOCs as they are fascinating, high quality and empowering for change in patient/citizen engagement and healthcare system.

Catherine Coste
@cathcoste on Twitter
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