Case Protocol
Every Aquifer course contains cases that explore the diagnosis and treatment of common acute and chronic illnesses as well as health maintenance visits.
Engaged in continuous practice of their clinical reasoning skills, students move through the stages of a patient’s presentation, assuming the role of a virtual student working with a preceptor—from eliciting the chief complaint to taking a history, performing a physical exam, composing an assessment, formulating a differential diagnosis, and on to diagnostic testing and management.
Aquifer Approach
Aquifer cases and Integrated Illness Scripts are developed and maintained by teams of leading medical educators who collaborate with their national education organizations to build courses that meet their unique teaching and learning needs. Our content is derived from the national core curriculum from our collaborating national educational organizations.
Our interactive, dynamic approach promotes individualized and engaged learning, clinical reasoning, and in-depth exploration of content.
Our Proven Pedagogy
Accessed through Aqueduct, our teaching and learning platform, our cases walk through a complete patient encounter, and include the following features:
Our Proven Pedagogy
- Complete Encounters with Patients & Preceptors
- Realistic Clinical Experiences
- Written by Experts & Aligned with National Curricula
- Modeling Communication
- Embedded Self-Assessment Throughout Cases
- Just-In-Time Coverage of Clinical Excellence Topics
- Integration of Basic Science and Clinical Education
- Formative Assessment Tools build Self-Directed Learners
Complete Encounters with Patients & Preceptors
Aquifer cases walk students through all of the steps of a patient encounter.
Realistic Clinical Experiences
Cases include results of diagnostic testing, videos, audio, and images to provide a deep and realistic patient scenario.
Written by Experts & Aligned with National Curricula
Aquifer cases are written and maintained by the Aquifer Consortium of leading health professions educators, and developed to provide comprehensive coverage of national organization curriculum.
Modeling Communication
Each case includes detailed dialog that models effective communication with both patients and preceptors—an ideal way to prepare students for clinic.
Embedded Self-Assessment Throughout Cases
Cases include built-in questions for self-assessment with detailed answer explanations, opportunities for students to practice writing summary statements, and additional self-assessment questions at the end to reinforce key concepts and extend learning beyond a single scenario.
Just-In-Time Coverage of Clinical Excellence Topics
Brief, just-in-time coverage of Palliative Care, Trauma-Informed Care, Social Determinants of Health, High Value Care, Diagnostic Excellence and Telemedicine is included in select cases - a great way to ensure consistent coverage of these often orphaned topics without adding faculty time.
Integration of Basic Science and Clinical Education
40+ Integrated Illness Scripts are available on core conditions to promote cognitive integration and provide a framework for learners to link basic science and clinical knowledge.
Formative Assessment Tools build Self-Directed Learners
Calibrate formative assessments for Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Radiology drive self-directed learning in clinical students, helping them build higher order thinking and problem solving skills, and provides a common tool and objective data to align students and faculty and leverage mid-clerkship feedback.
Teaching Tools
Thoughtful integration of the cases and Integrated Illness Scripts into the curriculum ensures student engagement and learning and allows educators to effectively address the Liaison Council for Medical Education (LCME), COCA, ARC-PA, ACEN, and CCNE accreditation standards. We provide the resources educators and their faculty need to fully integrate our programs into their curricula.
- Case descriptions featuring case goals and objectives and key teaching points.
- Supplemental educator resources and tools to blend the cases into traditional clinical and classroom curricula.
- Educator Guides for each course
- Integration workshops at national meetings.
- Reporting to track student progress.
- Assessment tools including formative assessments and the Clinical Decision Making Exam for Internal Medicine
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Aquifer is committed to serving as a leader in addressing biases and inequities encountered in clinical practice, and in life, through our transparent approach to developing, delivering, and optimizing online health professions education and continuous learning.
