Curriculum & Courses

Credit Hours

A total of 30 credit hours will be required to meet graduation requirements for the MSCI degree. Students must take at least 20 credits of core and elective classroom courses. In addition, students will enroll for at most 10 credits for their mentored capstone projects. The expected time to completion for the MSCI degree is two years.

Curriculum

The curriculum for the MSCI program begins in July for Track 2 candidates with a four-week intensive introductory session and in August for Track 3 candidates with a six-week intensive introductory session. Students in all tracks take a group of common core courses in epidemiology, data management, bioethics, and biostatistics. After completing the introductory sessions, students participate in additional core and elective courses in fall and spring semesters. Our courses are described under the School of Medicine Clinical Research Center (MDCRC) heading in the University of Utah Catalog. The majority of fall and spring class meetings starting at 5:30 pm to reduce time conflicts with clinical responsibilities. Each clinical investigation student may tailor his or her program of study to fit individual research/innovation interests and goals and may include courses offered by other departments with complementary curricula, namely human genetics, oncological sciences, biomedical informatics, global health innovation or public health.

Supervisory Committee

MSCI degree candidates will identify a primary research mentor within his or her department or area of clinical expertise. Students will be responsible for identifying two additional University of Utah faculty members to serve with their mentor on their MS degree Supervisory Committee. At least one member of the Supervisory Committee should be a faculty member with expertise in research methodology or global innovation, usually from chosen from the MSCI Core Faculty. The primary responsibility for monitoring the progress of students through the program will lie with the primary research mentor and the committee members.

Research/Innovation Project

Because the Master's program is intended to train individuals to pursue careers as independent investigators, the culmination of the mentored capstone project will be either a peer-reviewed research paper ready for submission to a leading journal or the analysis of their preliminary data prepared for an NIH career development application (e.g. K23, K08) or an equivalent federal or foundation career development grant. Track 3 candidates are expected to present a functional prototype with detailed project report, the results of testing an innovation product, or a patent application such as 510k submission.