Prospective Students

Clinical Informatics and Patient-Centered Technologies (CIPCT)

Health care professionals who understand the convergence of IT and health care systems are integral to improving health care. Federally mandated initiatives such as the Electronic Health record and a national health network will require nurses and other professionals to understand, design, develop, evaluate, and train staff to use informatics applications in advanced patient care.

CIPCT prepares graduate students from multiple disciplines to implement and evaluate information technology (IT) and other cutting-edge tools to:

improve quality of patient care
manage chronic illnesses
increase patient safety
enhance communication between patients and providers
increase efficiency of service delivery

Practicing nurses, healthcare clinicians and administrators nation-wide who have a strong desire to advance patient care by understanding, developing and improving IT applications and systems should apply. CIPCT is designed for students who have minimum 1-year experience in health care delivery systems; knowledge in informatics is not required, but you will need a basic understanding of computer fundamentals.

One barrier to any graduate education is loss of income while enrolled. The CIPCT program allows students to remain employed while enrolled in the program. In addition to allowing both part- and full-time study, CIPCT meets the educational needs of nurses and other health care professionals who cannot commute to campus weekly, due either to geographic distance or a busy work schedule, by making all of the required courses accessible from the comfort of your home or office. It is important for prospective students to note that CIPCT students are required to attend one on-campus session per year. This session will take place in August or September, likely over a 3-4 day weekend. Exact dates and times have not yet been selected, but will be posted when available.

This program was developed with faculty partners from Biomedical and Health Informatics, Health Information Management, Health Administration, Computer Science, and Engineering at the University of Washington, as well as funding provided through the Division of Nursing (DN), Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) .

For questions specific to this specialty contact:

jpalmer2 at u dot washington dot edu