School of Nursing & School of Medicine • Seattle, WA • Online • $741/Credit
University of Washington offers one Clinical Informatics program:
- MS
Program Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition | Est. Duration | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| MS in Clinical Informatics & Patient-Centered Technologies | $31.1K (all residents) | 1.25–2 years (5–8 quarters) | 42–48 |
UW replaces the practicum with a research capstone: a faculty-chaired scholarly project or a 9-credit master’s thesis, supervised jointly by Nursing and Biomedical Informatics faculty. One flat per-credit rate applies to Washington residents and out-of-state students alike.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Program Types | MS (Clinical Informatics & Patient-Centered Technologies) |
| Format | Online; optional in-person Annual Meeting in Seattle each fall |
| Practicum Hours | None; scholarly project (3+ credits) or master’s thesis (9 credits) |
| RN License Required | No; bachelor’s plus one year of health care experience |
| Who It’s For | Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, medical assistants, administrators, working informaticists |
| Distinctive Coursework | Database concepts, computing fundamentals, telehealth systems, patient-centered technologies |
| Certification Pathway | No ANCC practicum pathway; AMIA AHIC eligibility set by AMIA |
| Tuition | $741/credit, same for residents and nonresidents (2026–27) |
| Accreditation | NWCCU institutional; no programmatic accreditor cited |
| Start Term | Autumn only; May 1 deadline |
| Electives | None; all 39 course credits required |
MS in Clinical Informatics & Patient-Centered Technologies
The estimated tuition for the Online Master of Science in Clinical Informatics & Patient-Centered Technologies at University of Washington is approximately $31,122 (42 credits at $741/credit).
The program can generally be completed in about 15 months full time or 2 years part time.
MS Curriculum
The 39 course credits run on a fixed quarterly rotation with no electives. Technical depth comes from computing, database, and systems analysis courses rather than programming or data science sequences. A second thread covers health system quality, organizational effectiveness, and telehealth.
- NMETH 527: Introduction to Clinical Informatics (3)
- NMETH 523: Project Management & Systems Analysis for Health Informatics (3)
- NURS 524: Conceptual Foundations for Health Care Systems (4)
- NMETH 524: Health Care Information Systems & the Electronic Health Record (3)
- NURS 525: Managing Quality Improvement, Access & Utilization (5)
- NMETH 528: Computing Fundamentals for Health Professionals (3)
- NMETH 520: Scholarly Inquiry for Clinical Informatics Practice (4)
- NMETH 526: Patient-Centered Technologies (3)
- NMETH 529: Database Concepts & Application in Clinical Informatics (3)
- NMETH 530: Scholarly Proposal Development (4) and NSG 540: Telehealth Systems & Applications (4)
More curriculum details are available here.
You Should Know
- Courses are offered once a year in a set quarter (autumn, winter, spring, summer). Missing a course can push completion back a full year.
- Courses are cohort-paced with shared deadlines and frequent group projects, not self-paced.
- The degree must be finished within six years of the first CIPCT course, including any leave quarters.
MS Practicum and Capstone
- No practicum or field hours are published.
- Capstone choice: scholarly project (NMETH 598, minimum 3 credits) or master’s thesis (NMETH 700, 9 credits).
- Students select a chair from School of Nursing or Department of Biomedical Informatics & Medical Education faculty, plus a supervisory committee.
- Either option can span one or more quarters; NMETH 530 is a prerequisite.
- Credit math: 39 course credits + 3 project credits = 42; 39 + 9 thesis credits = 48.
Without supervised practicum hours, the program does not fit ANCC’s graduate-program pathway for informatics nursing certification, which requires 200 faculty-supervised practicum hours. The weekly load is lighter on logistics, since no site placement is needed, but heavier on independent research. The thesis option suits students eyeing doctoral study; the project option is cheaper and faster.
MS Admissions
The program admits non-nurses and does not require the GRE, but it requires a completed statistics course.
- Bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution, any field
- Minimum 3.0 GPA on the last 60 semester or 90 quarter graded credits
- At least one year of health care experience, preferably clinical
- Approved descriptive and inferential statistics course, grade 2.0 or higher
- No RN or other clinical license required
- Resume, five essay responses (250–300 words each), two recommendations (one academic, one professional preferred); optional statement of purpose
- Autumn start only; application deadline May 1, decisions in June
- International applicants accepted; no visa required for the online format
- Graduate nonmatriculated (GNM) enrollment allows up to 12 credits to transfer into the degree after admission
- State enrollment restrictions: not clearly stated on program pages
Tuition
UW publishes a cost of $741 per credit for 2026–27, identical for Washington residents and nonresidents because CIPCT is a fee-based program run through UW Continuum College. That produces published course fees of $31,122 for the 42-credit project route. The 48-credit thesis route costs an estimated $35,568 (48 × $741).
Required quarterly fees for UW Seattle fee-based graduate students (2026–27) depend on credit load:
| Credits per Quarter | Tech | S&A | U-PASS | Registration | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | $16 | $122 | $81 | $55 | $265 |
| 5 | $27 | $203 | $81 | $55 | $366 |
| 6 | $33 | $243 | $81 | $55 | $412 |
| 7+ | $38 | $284 | $81 | $55 | $458 |
Confirmed costs:
- Course fees: $31,122 (42 credits) or about $35,568 (48 credits, thesis)
- Estimated quarterly fees, full time: about $2,100 over 5 quarters (four at 7+ credits, one at 3)
- Estimated quarterly fees, part time: about $2,900–$3,300 over 8 quarters at 5–6 credits
- Textbooks and course materials: extra, amount not stated
Be aware that:
- The $741 rate covers 2026–27 only. Part-time students will pay later quarters at 2027–28 rates.
- Fee-based students are not eligible for tuition exemptions (including state employee waivers) or university grants. Federal aid and loans remain available.
- The fee schedule lists a U-PASS transit fee for UW Seattle degree students; it does not state whether fully online students are exempt.
- Courses taken under GNM status may be charged at a higher rate than matriculated fees.
- Attending the optional Annual Meeting in Seattle means travel costs the program does not cover.
Expect an all-in cost of roughly $33,200 full time or $34,000–$34,400 part time on the project route, before books and any rate increases. Choosing the thesis adds about $4,400. Fee details are on the program cost page and the UW fee-based fee schedule.
Why Choose This Clinical Informatics Program?
The workload fits professionals who can sustain cohort-paced coursework plus an independent research capstone, but not a practicum placement or campus travel.
Research capstone, not a practicum. The scholarly project or thesis is chaired by UW faculty and produces a defensible piece of research. That suits students heading toward doctoral study, research roles, or projects inside their current employer.
Open admissions profile. No RN license or GRE is required, and the cohort mixes physicians, nurses, pharmacists, medical assistants, and administrators. The one-year health care experience minimum and statistics prerequisite are the main screens.
The trade-offs. One autumn start per year, no electives, and once-a-year course offerings leave little flexibility. Nurses seeking ANCC informatics certification through a graduate practicum will need practice hours elsewhere. Programming and data science depth is limited to introductory computing and database courses.
Accreditation
CIPCT is offered through the School of Nursing and the School of Medicine and is administered in partnership with UW Continuum College. UW’s program pages do not cite CAHIIM accreditation or state that CCNE accreditation covers this MS. It is not an APRN or licensure-track degree.
The University of Washington is institutionally accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU).
For certification, ANCC’s Informatics Nursing credential (NI-BC) requires an RN license, a nursing bachelor’s or higher, and informatics practice hours; this program’s lack of a supervised practicum means RN graduates would qualify through a practice-hour pathway. AMIA’s AHIC is open to non-nurses, with AMIA setting degree and experience thresholds. The ABPM Clinical Informatics board requires an ACGME fellowship, so this MS does not confer physician board eligibility.
Other Clinical Informatics Schools
Browse every profiled program on the Clinical Informatics Schools page, or start with the clinical informatics degree overview.