HMS course recordings: molecular diagnostics

Molecular diagnostics is the lab work that reads a tumor’s DNA and RNA, like scanning a barcode for treatment clues. Harvard Medical School is packaging that training in a three-day cancer course whose sessions can also be watched on demand after the live program. (learn.hms.harvard.edu) The course, “Molecular Diagnostics: Current Roles in Cancer Diagnosis,” runs April 13 through April 15, 2026, costs $450, and offers up to 21.25 American Medical Association Physician’s Recognition Award Category 1 credits. Harvard Medical School lists it as a live online continuing education program developed by faculty from its teaching hospitals and offered by Massachusetts General Hospital. (learn.hms.harvard.edu) Harvard’s public course page says the program is aimed at pathologists, oncologists, laboratory geneticists, and other clinicians involved in cancer care. A parallel Harvard listing says the target audience also includes Doctor of Philosophy-trained molecular laboratory staff, pharmaceutical industry workers, and trainees in oncology and pathology. (learn.hms.harvard.edu, pll.harvard.edu) The basic problem the course tackles is speed and fit: doctors need to know which test to order, how to handle tissue, and how to interpret results before choosing treatment. Harvard says the curriculum covers test selection, cost, access, communication of results, and recent advances in precision oncology, the approach that matches care to the biology of an individual tumor. (learn.hms.harvard.edu) The agenda shows how broad that biology has become. Sessions span gene fusion detection, long-read sequencing, liquid biopsy, germline testing, methylation profiling, pharmacogenomics, and tumor board case reviews across lung, breast, melanoma, pediatric, blood, gastrointestinal, thyroid, and gynecologic cancers. (learn.hms.harvard.edu) Some of those terms are the tools behind everyday cancer decisions. Liquid biopsy looks for tumor material in blood instead of tissue, while germline testing checks inherited DNA changes that can shape cancer risk and treatment choices. (learn.hms.harvard.edu, learn.hms.harvard.edu) Alanna Church, the course director, is a molecular and pediatric pathologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Harvard says her work has focused on bringing molecular testing into care for children with cancer and has included profiling thousands of pediatric tumors. (learn.hms.harvard.edu) The course also sits inside a much larger continuing education business at Harvard Medical School. The school says it offered more than 100 accredited courses and reached 42,000 clinicians in more than 105 countries in 2024. (learn.hms.harvard.edu) For clinicians who cannot sit through three full days live, the draw is practical: a structured cancer genomics course from Harvard’s teaching network, with case-based sessions and a limited replay window to catch what they missed. (learn.hms.harvard.edu)