Curriculum and Academic Programs | HIP

The Human Investigations Program offers a Certificate in Human Investigations and a Master of Clinical Research (M.C.R.). Both options offer graduate level academic credit building on the same core courses and differentiated by the number of elective courses. The core courses are offered in a fixed sequence over two years. HIP courses are graded on a pass/no pass basis. A non-degree option is available for individuals who may want to take coursework in HIP without earning a degree.

Programs and requirements

Certificate Program

Requirements for Certificate

A total of 24 credits hours completed in 2 years (maximum of 4 years). Individuals completing this track will receive a graduate Certificate Human Investigations.

Core Courses:

HIP 510 Introduction to Clinical Research (1 cr.)
HIP 511 Clinical Research Design I (2 cr.)
HIP 511A Proposal Development (3 cr. total)
HIP 512 Clinical Research Design II (2 cr.)
HIP 513 Clinical Research Design III (2 cr.)
HIP 516 Protection of Human Subjects (1 cr.)
HIP 517 Scientific Writing & Data Presentation (1.5 cr.)
HIP 523 Data Science for Clinical & Translational Research (2 cr.)
HIP 507A Evidence-based Medicine Seminar (2 cr.) OR HIP 538 Community-Engaged Research (2 cr.)

Mentored Capstone Project:
HIP 526 Capstone (6 credits)

Elective courses:

Elective HIP course of at least 1.5 credits
Permission required if taking an elective course from another graduate program at OHSU.

The core required courses and suggested electives are tuition-free and students only need pay a university fee for each term enrolled. See more about tuition and fees

Time to Certificate Completion

Most students are full-time working professionals and will generally take one or two sequential classes per term.
Certificate students will typically need 2 years to complete degree requirements but are allowed up to 4 years to complete the program. A flexible option may be constructed with approval of the HIP director.

M.C.R. Program

The Master of Clinical Research offers formal training for clinicians and scientists who desire to make clinical or translational research either their predominant focus or a substantial part of their long-term career goal. The main objectives of the M.C.R. are to prepare a cohort of trained investigators who will be able to successfully compete for federal, foundation, and industry funding and to conduct research and publish their findings.

This track is only available to individuals already enrolled in the certificate track or who have recently completed the certificate. Individuals completing all program requirements will receive a Master of Clinical Research degree.

Requirements for M.C.R. degree completion

A total of 45 credit hours typically completed in 3 years (maximum of 6 years). M.D. students in the Physician-Scientist Experience may complete in one year accelerated.

M.C.R. students are required to submit a plan of study and may meet with the HIP program coordinator to schedule their M.C.R. electives.

Core Courses:

Mentored Capstone Project:
HIP 526 Capstone (6 credits)

Elective courses:
Elective curriculum can be designed to best fit with the individual's research focus and methodology.

22.5 elective credits
In additional to electives in HIP, students may take electives from other graduate courses at OHSU. These include graduate courses in the School of Public Health, School of Nursing and School of Medicine including Biomedical Informatics and other basic science courses.

The core required courses and some electives are tuition-free. Students need to pay a university fee for each term enrolled and tuition for courses subject to tuition. See more about tuition and fees

Time to Degree Completion

Most students are full-time working professionals and will generally take one to two sequential classes per term.
M.C.R. degree candidates will typically need 3 years to complete degree requirements. Students are allowed 6 years to complete the program from matriculation to the M.C.R. program. While the HIP curriculum is scheduled during evenings, courses offered through other graduate programs are not necessarily scheduled at convenient times and are not offered every term. This track will take advanced planning and will require some flexibility in clinic schedules.
An accelerated one-year program is available to M.D. in the Physician-Scientist Experience Program.

Non-degree Enrollment

Individuals may enroll in specific courses in clinical and translational research as a non-degree student. This option excludes a mentored experience or degree and may fulfill a requirement for research training in some department fellowships.

Non-degree students must choose to take courses for either:

graduate level credit (pass/no pass grade), or
audit (no credit, no grade).
Ph.D. students may request courses to be graded with a letter grade if required by their Ph.D. graduate program. Not applicable for all courses.

The core courses and some electives are tuition-free and students only need pay a university fee for each term enrolled. See more about tuition and fees

Permission to enroll is required pending eligibility and available space. Applicants submit a list of desired courses in the application to the HIP program.

Sequence of Study

Year One

Fall term:

HIP Orientation (half-day seminar)
Mandatory one-time, half-day orientation for certificate and M.C.R. students. See course schedule for date and time. Non-degree trainees are strongly encouraged to attend. This orientation is combined with an online course, HIP 510 Introduction to Clinical Research, for one credit.
HIP 510 Intro to Clinical Research (online, 1 credit)
HIP 511 Clinical Research Design I (2 credits)
- This is the first course in the Clinical Research Design sequence. Students must commit to enroll in all 3 terms.
HIP 511A Proposal Development (1 credit)
- Note that this course is schedule as 2 sessions each term, fall winter and spring (3 credits total). Students must commit to enroll in all 3 terms and to be enrolled in or have already completed Clinical Research Design I, II and III. This course requires intensive work in order to keep on schedule to write a research proposal.

Winter term:

HIP 512 Clinical Research Design II (2 credits)
HIP 511A Proposal Development (1 credit)

Spring term:

HIP 513 Clinical Research Design III (2 credits)
HIP 511A Proposal Development (1 credit)

Year Two

Summer term (optional):

HIP 538 Community-Engaged Research (selective choice for students matriculating Fall 2024 or later)
Elective choices available

Fall term:

HIP 523 Data Science for Clinical & Translational Research (8 weeks, 2 credits)
HIP 516 Protection of Human Subjects (4 weeks, 1 credit)

Winter term:

HIP 517 Scientific Writing (6 weeks, 1.5 credits)
HIP 507A Evidence-based Medicine (8 weeks, 2 credits)
- HIP 507A is scheduled such that it starts in winter term and finishes early in spring term
- Required course for students who matriculated before Fall 2024
- Selective option for students matriculating Fall 2024 or later

Spring term:

Elective opportunities:
- See Course Descriptions for electives choice. May enroll with approval if prerequisites are met.
- Note that some electives are tuition-free while others are subject to tuition. See tuition and fees for details.
- If taking both 507A and 538, one will fulfill elective requirement.

Capstone Project

Mentored Capstone Project

The mentored capstone provides an intensive, practical and supportive training leading to an academic product to be completed by the end of the 2nd year. MCR students may take more time to complete the capstone.

Certificate and M.C.R. students will need sufficient protected time to work on the research capstone project. The capstone is typically started in the spring of the first year. The amount of time required for this work will depend on the scope of the project and the student-mentor relationship.
Choice of doing either a clinical research study designed, implemented, and analyzed by the student resulting in a publishable manuscript in a peer-reviewed journal; OR writing a NIH-compatible grant application.
Planned with the candidate's mentor and the approval of the program directors.
Total of 6 academic credits typically divided between two or three terms in Year Two, but the expectation is that trainees are working on this throughout the two years in the HIP Program. Credits will be adjusted accordingly if capstone is planned to be submitted after the second year.

Time Commitment and Attendance

Students typically attend class one evening a week from 4:30-6:30 p.m. over 2 years.
Classes are scheduled on the same day throughout both the first and second year: Tuesday evening over the two years if cohort starts in an odd year, Wednesday evening over the two years if cohort starts in an even year.
Electives may be offered on other days than the core courses. A plan of study is recommended for all years in the program in order to schedule in all electives.
Classes are of variable length (4 sessions to 11 sessions) and scheduled sequentially.
Trainees should expect an average of 4 hours of homework and reading per week.
M.C.R. students may add electives to the core curriculum starting as early as their 1st year but will often wait until the 2nd year.

See course schedules for more details.

Individuals accepted into the program will be asked to sign a contract of commitment. Students are expected to be present during class meetings and to be engaged in learning. All students enrolled for academic credit are expected to complete the core curriculum and its assignments and attend a minimum of 75% of class meetings.

For in-person classes, in-person attendance is expected. For virtual classes, synchronous attendance is expected. Recordings of class in both formats may be available to make up for the occasional absence. Any exceptions to this policy will reviewed on an individual basis by the course director. Approval will be dependent on student progress or assignment of additional work to evaluate meeting of the learning objectives.