Aquifer Radiology Seeks Course Board Member & Case Editor

Make an Impact: Work with Aquifer to Advance Medical Education

Aquifer—a unique non-profit organization dedicated to advancing healthcare education—is now accepting applications for two key positions supporting the Aquifer Radiology course.

Our Reach

Working with Aquifer, your work will make a big impact on medical and health professions education. Aquifer’s virtual patient cases are used in 97% of U.S. allopathic medical schools, 66% of osteopathic medical schools, and a growing number of health professions programs.

Aquifer Radiology is used by 215 programs, including medical schools, physician assistant, and nurse practitioner programs.

Open Positions

Aquifer Radiology Course Board: Teaching & Learning Lead

This position is part of the interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning Working Group and Aquifer Radiology Course Board. The Teaching & Learning Group is a unique interdisciplinary team with representatives from each Aquifer course that works to maintain and develop teaching resources, innovative pedagogies, and share approaches and participate in outreach to improve the integration of Aquifer across medical and health professions education. This position is part of the Aquifer Educators Consortium and has a one year period of service with renewable terms. 

This position is open to any educator who meets the following qualifications:

• Member of AUR and AMSER
• Experience using Aquifer courses in a direct role as course, clerkship, or curriculum director

The Aquifer Teaching and Learning (T&L) Lead ensures that Educators who use Aquifer in their specified discipline have up-to-date teaching materials and a clear understanding of how to use them to enhance student learning. 

Overall Activities and Responsibilities:

• Educator Resources:
  • Oversee the review and updating of course-specific teaching materials 
  • Identify and support the development of new educator resources as appropriate
• Along with the Aquifer Radiology Senior Director, serve as a liaison between your course board and the relevant National Organization to: 
  • Facilitate implementation of engagement approaches at national specialty organization meetings (workshops, presentations, booths, informal social gatherings etc).
• Participate in Aquifer outreach activities that facilitate educator collaboration beyond traditional specialty silos to enhance medical student education. Activities might include: 
  • Presentations of workshops at regional and national meetings,
  • Podcasts, webinars and workshops about using Aquifer Radiology 
  • Exploratory discussions with faculty and students locally/regionally/nationally.
• Develop expertise about effective integration of online learning and assessment tools.
• Participate in Aquifer Course board calls.
• Participate in T&L working group calls.
• Participate in T&L integration/engagement projects (as interest and need dictates).
• Attend the Aquifer annual meeting.

Aquifer’s Responsibilities to Teaching and Learning Leads 

1. Provide materials, guidance and support for continuous course and educator resource improvement.
2. Provide support for the Teaching and Learning Working Group Meetings.
3. Provide support for attendance at the Aquifer Annual Meeting (Wellspring)
4. Provide support and guidance for continuous course and educator resource improvement processes.
5. Provide annual a letter acknowledging leadership and scholarly contributions to Aquifer and its mission (if desired).

Term

The period of service is one year, with renewable terms at the discretion of the Aquifer Radiology Senior Director and Aquifer Chief Academic Officer.

Case Editor: Aquifer Radiology 18 – Professionalism in Radiology

The Case Editor position involves a review of Aquifer Radiology Case 18: Professionalism in Radiology. This case offers unique content that helps learners  increase their awareness of the crucial influence their own professionalism exerts within systems of practice. The content prepares learners for skills and attitudes they will need to thrive in fulfilling their future ACGME Professionalism milestones as residents. Case reviews occur as part of Aquifer’s Continuous Case Improvement (CCI) process once every 18-months, in collaboration with the Associate Editor for that case from the Aquifer Radiology Course Board. Essentially, the Case Editor brings up-to-date, high level content expertise, ensures that all references and external links to resources remain relevant, correct, and current. Each online case takes about 45 minutes for students to complete, to give you an idea about the size of the task. This work is very well supported by the Aquifer Radiology Production team.As a case editor, you would use your extensive experience and training to review virtual patient cases that address specific learning objectives. These scenarios are used in the training of medical students and other health professionals.

Your participation would require:

• Going through a brief training.
• Providing feedback on the quality of the case, its authenticity, and other aspects of the experience as you review it, ensuring that the content, clinical reasoning, and pedagogy within the case are current, reflective of standard practice and of the national curriculum objectives, and at the appropriate level for a core clerkship student.
• Documenting any errors, broken links, or other changes needed.
• At the completion of your review, discussing your review with an associate editor via a Zoom call or email, and responding to their questions and suggestions..

Aquifer will provide a detailed letter for your educator’s portfolio and recognition of your contribution on our website.

Application Process

The Aquifer Radiology Course Board will welcome your expression of interest. Please write to Aquifer Radiology Senior Director, Dr. Jeff Hogg (jhogg@hsc.wvu.edu) with AQUIFER RECRUITMENT in the subject line if you are interested in either of these positions.

We look forward to working with you to better serve the needs of radiology educators and students.

Sincerely, 

The Aquifer Radiology Course Board

• Jeffery Hogg, MD; Senior Director (West Virginia University)
• Pauline Germaine, DO; Curriculum Lead (Rowan University)
• Jennifer Koay White, MD; Associate Editor (West Virginia University)
• Matthew Miller, MD; Associate Editor (Allegheny Health Network)
• Melissa Manzer, MD; Associate Editor (University of Nebraska)
• Siddhartha Gaddamanugu, MD; Assessment Lead (University of Alabama, Birmingham)