Online Courses

Practitioners, educators, law enforcement personnel and the legal community require continuing education in the constantly advancing field of forensic science. Take advantage of our preeminent expert faculty to enhance your and your labs’ knowledge-base and skill-sets to stay abreast of novel developments in the field. With our comprehensive offering of engaging workshop and continuing education courses, online training courses, internships and certificate programs, you are sure to find a training opportunity to suit your needs. All of our professional development offerings provide you the chance to learn from dynamic faculty on unique topics as well as from internationally recognized leaders in their fields.

Featured Courses

Overdose Deaths Associated with Loperamide Intoxication: Grand Rounds 2022

Loperamide (trade name Imodium) is a synthetic opioid derivative that is used to decrease the frequency of bowel movements in patients with diarrhea. Once dispensed only by prescription, it has been available as an over-the -counter medication for over three decades. Loperamide was thought to have low abuse potential but there have been several fatalities due to this drug reported since 2015.

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Re-Introducing CFSRE’s NPS Discovery Program: Past, Present, and a Look into the Future

CFSRE’s NPS Discovery is an open-access drug early warning system (EWS) operating in the United States. NPS Discovery’s evidence-based approach leads the development of high impact reports for real-time action. We are working in collaboration with law enforcement, public health, and public safety agencies to rapidly identify emerging drugs associated with intoxications and adverse events....

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Recognizing and Documenting Ghost Guns

The United States has strict requirements for firearm manufacturers and importers regarding serial numbers and other required markings. New technologies such as 3D printing, and different interpretations of the laws surrounding firearms, have resulted in the rise of un-serialized firearms, commonly referred to as “ghost guns.” Of great importance is a controversial “80% rule,” which asserts that a firearm does not fall under US federal guidelines unless its receiver is more than 80% complete....

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Reliable Quantification of THC in Chocolate and Identifying Fentanyl Analogs and Illicit Drugs using MassHunter - Archival

Potency testing in edibles is challenging, as each edible has a unique consistency, and each suffer from distinctive analytical challenges. During this time, you will learn tips and tricks to optimally extract cannabinoids and get the cleanest samples....

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Sample Collection Practices That can Lead to Elevated or Lower Blood Drug Concentrations: Grand Rounds 2022

The focus of this Grand Round presentation is to demonstrate best practices for sample collection for blood and vitreous fluid and juxtapose these practices with techniques that can cause alteration of drug concentrations within the collected samples....

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So You Think You're Ethical? Ethics and Forensic Science

Ethics is defined by Miriam Webster as moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity as well as the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles. Ethics as it applies to Forensic Science is recognized as the rules of conduct in respect to the application of scientific principles and practices to the adversarial process where guilt or innocence is determined in court....

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Sodium Nitrate, Sodium Nitrite and Helium: Grand Rounds 2022

This talk aspires to begin the process of creating illness scripts and diagnostic reasoning models for chemical and simple asphyxiant deaths. Highlighting historical context, scene investigation findings, pathophysiology, societal and forensic context, toxicology and laboratory date will begin to creating schemas for cause and manner of death investigation and determination....

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Specialized Forensic Toxicology, Pathology and Certification of Drug Related Death for Forensic Pathologists: 2021

Level: Expert level detail for individuals familiar with death investigation practices for professionals involved in complex medicolegal investigation of drug caused and related death

Target audience: Forensic pathologists, medical examiners, coroners, medicolegal death investigators, forensic toxicologists, forensic pathology fellows and residents.

Content: This is an advanced course designed specifically for forensic pathologists and toxicologists with moderate the extensive experience in medicolegal death investigation casework. It is recommended that Module II “The Evaluation and Certification of Drug Caused and Related Deaths for Forensic Pathologists, Toxicologists and Death Investigators” be completed prior to taking this course (see above). The main topics covered will include expert level review of the current analytical approaches and workflows employed in the postmortem laboratory such as immunoassay and mass spectrometry, and interpretation of toxicology results for specialized circumstances to include drug-delivery-resulting-in-death (“but-for”), drug use with restraint, hospital, and pediatric and palliative care deaths, exhumations, US Drug early warning systems, and other emergent topics.

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Specialized Forensic Toxicology, Pathology and Certification of Drug Related Death for Forensic Pathologists: 2022

Level: Expert level detail for individuals familiar with death investigation practices for professionals involved in complex medicolegal investigation of drug caused and related death

Target audience: Forensic pathologists, medical examiners, coroners, medicolegal death investigators, forensic toxicologists, forensic pathology fellows and residents.

Content: This is an advanced course designed specifically for forensic pathologists and toxicologists with moderate the extensive experience in medicolegal death investigation casework. It is recommended that Module II “The Evaluation and Certification of Drug Caused and Related Deaths for Forensic Pathologists, Toxicologists and Death Investigators” be completed prior to taking this course (see above). The main topics covered will include expert level review of the current analytical approaches and workflows employed in the postmortem laboratory such as immunoassay and mass spectrometry, and interpretation of toxicology results for specialized circumstances to include drug-delivery-resulting-in-death (“but-for”), drug use with restraint, hospital, and pediatric and palliative care deaths, exhumations, US Drug early warning systems, and other emergent topics.

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The Collision of COVID and the Opioid Epidemic: Grand Rounds 2022

The opioid epidemic in the United States began in the late 1990’s and accelerated around 2015. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, first infected humans in late 2019. COVID has become a pandemic causing over 5 million deaths world-wide. COVID has caused over 780,000 deaths in the United States since the pandemic began, making the United States the only industrial nation that has the highest death rates from both COVID and from opioid toxicity....

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