LibGuides: Open Educational Resources: Pre-Health

Health Resources

his is a selection of openly licensed textbooks that has been created for free use in courses. These resources may be adopted for use as classroom text, modified to create new texts, or used as a supplemental learning tool to aid in understanding key concepts.

Check out more resources listed in other relevant subject areas, such as Biology and Chemistry.

Anatomy and Physiology

Anatomy and Physiology by J. Gordon Betts, et al.
A reviewed textbook created by OpenStax, intended to meet the requirements of a two-semester human anatomy and physiology course. It is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-4.0 license.

Disease Prevention

Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases by Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

The 13th Edition Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases, a.k.a. the “Pink Book,” provides physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, and others with the most comprehensive information on routinely used vaccines and the diseases they prevent.
Disease Prevention and Healthy Lifestyles by Judy Baker

An open textbook that discusses health, wellness, and disease prevention as it pertains to both chronic and infectious diseases, as well as mental and emotional health.

Patient Care

Clinical Procedures for Safer Patient Care by Glynda Rees Doyle and Jodie Anita McCutcheon

This open educational resource (OER) was developed to ensure best practice and quality care based on the latest evidence, and to address inconsistencies in how clinical health care skills are taught and practiced in the clinical setting.
Foundations for Assisting in Home Care by Kimberly B. McLain, Andrea C. Wade and Erin O'Hara-Leslie

This text takes you from gaining an understanding of what home care is and the tasks involved, through better understanding the physical and psychological needs of people, along with the influence of culture on behaviors, values, and healthcare practices.
Nursing Care at the End of Life by Susan E. Lowey
Nursing Care at the End of Life: What Every Clinician Should Know addresses an essential component of the basic educational preparation for the professional registered nurse student. .

Science Education Booklets

Free publications from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) for high school and college students on topics including cell biology, genetics, and pharmacology.

The Chemistry of Health by National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

The Chemistry of Health is a science education booklet that explores the work chemists do. Many chemists are medical explorers looking for new ways to maintain and improve our health. Others are helping to preserve our planet by developing safe, cheap, and efficient ways to make the materials we use every day.
Medicines by Design by National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

Medicines by Design is a science education booklet that discusses the many different ways medicines work in the body and how this information guides the hunt for drugs of the future.

Pre-Health Courses & Courseware

Family Health Medicine Education - University of Michigan Medical School
The University of Michigan Medical School has created an extensive series of high-quality education modules on a wide variety of family health topics.Unless otherwise noted, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license.
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Open Courseware
JHSPH has made available an extensive list of courses and courseware, which generally contain course syllabi and lecture notes/recordings. Topics span a wide array of topics, including human development, nutrition, environmental health, health behaviors, and research methodologies. Unless otherwise noted, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0 Generic license.
Learn Oncology
A comprehensive site of educational resources encompassing the discipline of oncology - including learning modules, whiteboard videos, virtual patients and case practice, and assessment tests.
OpenLearn
Open Learn is an initiative of The Open University, UK and offers more than 1000 free online classes. It also provides supplemental materials for educators, including articles, podcasts, videos, games, and much more.
UCI Open
The University of California - Irvine has a large collection of openly licensed courses available for the public to use, licensed under Creative Commons licenses.

Simulations

CSurgeries - CSurgeries as an online library of peer-reviewed surgical procedure videos, created by surgeons for surgeons, trainees, and students.
Hemoglobin Molecular Structure - An online visualization of hemoglobin molecular structure.
PhET Interactive Simulations
These simulations were created as part of an open initiative at the University of Colorado at Boulder. They are licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license.

Government Resources
Below is a collection of useful resources produced by government centers and institutes. Many of these resources are available in the public domain.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a wide array of educational resources to inform the public and medical professionals about health-related issues worldwide. A list of the CDC Stacks Public Health Publications can be found at this link.
- Adolescent and School Health
- Alzheimer's Disease and Healthy Aging
National Institute of Health Publications
The National Institute of Health has made available a number of health publications, including:
- Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction
Office of Minority Health - U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
The Office of Minority Health has made available an online library of health information to accompany their campaigns and initiatives, which include a set of population profiles for different minority groups.

Additional Resources:

Field Trials of Health Interventions: A Toolbox
A resource that provides an overview of disease control intervention trial design and conduct that can act as a toolbox for field investigators seeking to roll out new initiatives.
MEDSKL
A site for medical professionals to learn many of the fundamentals of clinical medicine via free videos and downloadable resources created by medical professors.
Skills Commons
A free and open library of workforce training materials - including resources for healthcare manufacturing and health/social assistance.
Teaching Commons: Open Educational Resources
A repository of OER created by educators - including medicine and health science textbooks, courses and course materials.
The Vestibular System Quiz Game
A quiz game examining the structure, function, and pathophysiology of the vestibular system.

Open Access Resources:

Hypertension (HTN) Bingo
An interactive game that quizzes students on different characteristics of hypertension.
MedPix
An online, open-access database of more than 59,000 medical images, teaching cases, and clinical topics.
The National Academies Press
The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics together have created the National Academies Press, which to date has more than 8500 open-access health, science, and medicine books.
Online Medical Terminology Course
Des Moines University's Department of Medicine and Health Sciences has made available an online course in medical terminology.

Medical School Resources

AspiringDocs.org - Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
The Association of American Medical Colleges has created an online collection of resources and sources of inspiration to help students start on their path to medical school.