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Aquifer Obstetrics and Gynecology

Aquifer Obstetrics and Gynecology
Pregnant Woman Having 4D Ultrasound Scan

The Aquifer Obstetrics & Gynecology Case Set covers topics recommended by leading OBGYN clerkship directors, powered by AqueductSM, Aquifer’s teaching and learning platform.

Overview

The Aquifer Obstetrics & Gynecology case set covers topics recommended by leading Obstetrics & Gynecology clerkship directors and places students in realistic patient scenarios, developing their clinical reasoning skills. The cases foster self-directed and independent study, centers clinical problem-solving, and teaches an evidence-based, patient-centered approach to patient care.

The initial case set covers multiple topics including fetal growth restriction, endometrial hyperplasia, and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Additional cases will release on a rolling basis throughout the academic year, culminating in more than 20 virtual patient cases.

For Academic Year 2024-45, this case set is only available for Curricular Partner programs. In Academic Year 2025-26, it will be available for limited subscribers as a Signature Course.

Aquifer created the OBGYN case set to health professions students up for success. The United States faces increasing maternal death rates (CDC), with 84% of pregnancy-related deaths deemed preventable by the CDC. (CDC) Outcomes for women of color are even worse (CDC). And 20% of patients who see an OBGYN refer to that individual as their Primary Care Physician (NIH). This positions health care professionals working in the OBGYN space with significant opportunities to improve patient outcomes and experience.

Key Features

  • Created for educators, by educators, and covers topics recommended by leading obstetrics & gynecology clerkship directors.
  • Covers topics recommended by leading Obstetrics & Gynecology clerkship directors
  • Proven pedagogy that standardizes experiences—overcoming geography, seasonality, and accessibility
  • Evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and continuously updated content
  • A wealth of source material—including embedded assessment questions and full references—in each case
  • Delivered via the Aqueduct teaching and learning platform, which includes user management tools, easy reporting on student progress and course usage, plus tools for creating custom courses to match a specific curriculum

Curriculum Integration

We designed the Aquifer Obstetrics & Gynecology Case Set for any level student in a health professions program. The cases are ideal for students preparing for clinical experiences that cover Obstetrics & Gynecology. Cases also serve as valuable reference material for students to return to as they need to refresh their knowledge during clinical rotations.

Looking for ideas on how to integrate the cases into your curriculum? Aquifer offers free 1:1 Curricular Consults for active subscribers with our Adoption & Use experts. Schedule a meeting and discover the most efficient way to leverage Aquifer.

SCHEDULE CURRICULAR CONSULT

Case List

The initial case set comprises eight virtual patient encounters, covering:

  • Uncomplicated pregnancy and induction of labor
  • Cesarean delivery
  • Postpartum endometritis
  • Chronic hypertension in pregnancy
  • Fetal growth restriction
  • Contraception
  • Diabetes in pregnancy
  • STI screening
  • Dysmenorrhea
  • Premenstrual dysphoric disorder
  • multifetal gestations
  • In Vitro fertilization (IVF)
  • Abnormal uterine bleeding
  • Hirsutism
  • Endometrial hyperplasia
  • Leiomyoma
  • Menopause
  • Chronic pelvic pain
  • Endometriosis
  • Sexual Function Changes
  • Preterm labor

After July 1, cases will publish on a rolling basis throughout the 2024-25 Academic Year. Additional topics covered will include:

  • Puberty and amenorrhea
  • Vulvar and vaginal disease
  • Violence against women
  • Pelvic floor disorders
  • Depression and Anxiety in Pregnancy
  • Complications of pregnancy
  • Fetal demise
  • Ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage
  • Gynecologic procedures

Aquifer Clinical Excellence Case Sets

Palliative Care * Trauma-Informed Care * High Value Care * Diagnostic Excellence * Social Determinants of Health * Telemedicine
your-ideal-clinical-preceptor
The 52 cases in Aquifer’s Clinical Excellence Case Sets deliver focused, in-depth teaching on important but often overlooked or difficult-to-teach topics that don’t have an obvious place in many programs’ curricula.

 

Overview

The Clinical Excellence Case Sets foster self-directed and independent study, develop clinical problem-solving skills, and teach an evidence-based, patient-centered approach to patient care. The 52 short cases cover principles and applications of key interdisciplinary topics critical to providing excellent patient care, including Palliative Care, Trauma-Informed Care, High Value Care, Diagnostic Excellence, Social Determinants of Health, and Telemedicine.

Key Features

  • Created for educators, by educators, to cover key topics
  • Included with all Curricular Partner subscriptions and available by separate subscription to Limited Institutional Subscribers or individual subscribers.
  • Streamlined case structure, delivering shorter, more focused principles and applications cases. Cases take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.
  • Appropriate to support pre-clinical or clinical learning.
  • Can be combined with other cases in a custom course to meet the needs of your specific curriculum.
  • Proven pedagogy that standardizes experiences—overcoming geography, seasonality, and accessibility
  • Evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and continuously updated content
  • Self-assessment questions emphasize key content and enable students to test their knowledge and skills
  • A wealth of source material, tools, and full references in each case

Course and Case Structure

The Clinical Excellence Case Sets follow a streamlined course and case structure, delivering shorter, more focused cases. Cases take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.

Each case set begins with a principles module, which covers key definitions, epidemiology, explanations of key principles and why they are important for patient care, and a harm statement that makes it explicit what harm can come to the patient if the principle is not incorporated into practice.

After completing the principles module, students unlock additional application cases that explore realistic case scenarios. Application cases are concise and focus on one area of a patient encounter, and are centered around asking students to make important clinical decisions. Content models evidence-based best practices and communication strategies, exploring the real-world impacts on care and potential harm. At the end of each case, a reflection question asks the students to consider key takeaways, implications for their future practice, or personal wellness. Each application case also includes self-assessment questions that extend the learning to other scenarios.

Curriculum Integration

Aquifer Clinical Excellence Case Sets are designed for any level student in a medical school or health professions program. Cases can be used to introduce principles and applications for pre-clinical students, reinforce concepts during relevant clerkships and electives, build capstone courses, and support rotations in a variety of clinical settings.

Combined with the brief just-in-time teaching on these topics included in many of Aquifer’s Signature courses, educators can be certain that learners have consistent, evidence-based coverage without adding significant faculty or learner time.

Aquifer Clinical Excellence Course Board

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Aquifer Neurology

The 15 virtual patient cases in Aquifer Neurology cover topics recommended by leading neurology clerkship directors.

Overview

Neurologic disorders are common and can be associated with significant morbidity and mortality when not adequately diagnosed and treated. Given the critical shortage of neurologists in the U.S., Aquifer is proud to provide this training to ensure all future healthcare practitioners understand a framework to diagnose and treat essential common neurologic diagnoses.

Development of the Aquifer Neurology course was led by Dr. Alexandra Hovaguimian, Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Doris Kung, Associate Professor of Neurology at Baylor College of Medicine, in collaboration with Aquifer, and the cases were written by neurologists at academic medical centers around the U.S. The course helps students learn the principles of neurology and integrate these principles into the care of their patients, providing an evidence-based, patient-centered approach and supporting the development of clinical problem-solving skills. With a range of cases spanning many specialties, the content stands alone as an educational tool or enriches an existing curriculum.

Embedded Curricular Threads

Embedded threads provide consistent teaching on interdisciplinary Clinical Excellence topics throughout Aquifer’s core courses. Select Aquifer Neurology cases will include new content woven into the case to highlight key principles in palliative care, trauma-informed care, social determinants of health, high value care, diagnostic excellence, and foundations of telemedicine. Learn more…

Key Features

  • Created for educators, by educators, and covers topics recommended by leading neurology clerkship directors.
  • Available for institutional subscription or for direct purchase by individual subscribers
  • Proven pedagogy that standardizes experiences—overcoming geography, seasonality, and accessibility
  • Evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and continuously updated content
  • A wealth of source material—including embedded assessment questions and full references—in each case
  • Delivered via the Aqueduct teaching and learning platform, which includes user management tools, easy reporting on student progress and course usage, plus tools for creating custom courses to match a specific curriculum

Course Content & Competencies

The cases in Aquifer Neurology cover topics recommended by leading neurology clerkship directors and provides realistic patient scenarios to help health professions students on a neurology rotation develop clinical reasoning skills. Several cases also include an embedded curricular thread that covers a related clinical excellence topic.

Curriculum Integration

Aquifer Neurology can be used by third-year medical students, PA students, and NP/DNP students as a complement to a clerkship or course on neurology. Programs may choose to assign all 15 cases or just a subset of cases for their learners.

Additionally, cases from Aquifer Neurology can be used to provide preclinical learners with exposure to this key topic, or combined with cases from our other courses into a custom course to support an elective or capstone course.

Case List

Neurology 01: 40-year-old with progressive weakness
Neurology 02: 26-year-old found unconscious
Neurology 03: 23-year-old with episodes of confusion
Neurology 04: 9-month-old with reflux and motor delay
Neurology 05: 34-year-old with numbness and tingling
Neurology 06: 37-year-old with upper extremity weakness
Neurology 07: 68-year-old with essential tremor
Neurology 08: 51-year-old with ptosis
Neurology 09: 75-year -old with memory loss
Neurology 10: 7-year-old with headache
Neurology 11: 24-year-old with headache
Neurology 12: 70-year-old with light-headedness and numbness
Neurology 13: 28-year-old with dizziness
Radiology 09: 34-year-old male Neuro – Trauma
Radiology 10: 40-year-old male Neuro – Vascular and HIV

Aquifer Neurology Course Board

CARE (Course on Addiction and Recovery Education)

Aquifer Addiction

Developed by The Betty Ford Center (a part of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation), the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and the Treatment Research Institute.

CARE is distributed by Aquifer on behalf of Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation (HBFF) and the WISE program at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and hosted on the WISE learning platform.

The 12 modules in the Course on Addiction and Recovery Education (CARE) concentrate on critical addiction and substance use topics that medical students and healthcare professionals need to be able to address. Modules consist of patient cases and videos.

Overview

Used in medical schools, nurse practitioner and PA learning programs nationwide, the CARE online curriculum prepares future clinicials to identify, intervene, and address substance use disorders. The lack of formal education surrounding substance use disorders and addiction has left many practicing physicians and healthcare professionals inadequately prepared to assess, intervene, manage, and treat patients.

Key Features

  • Twelve modules incorporate case studies, which provide an interactive platform for clinical consideration, and videos featuring today’s leading experts in addiction covering key topics
  • Created for educators, by educators, in conjunction with the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the Treatment Research Institute
  • Proven pedagogy that standardizes experiences—overcoming geography, seasonality, and accessibility
  • Self-assessment questions at the end of the course emphasize key content and enable students to test their knowledge and skills
  • A wealth of source material, tools, and full references in each case

Course Content

A first-of-its-kind online course for medical, PA and NP/DNP students, CARE draws from leading experts and emerging science, covering topics such as integrated treatment for addiction and mental health issues and multicultural sensitivity. This course provides expert training and content that builds the skills needed to provide quality care to these patients. The modules combine virtual patient cases and video presentations with self-assessment questions.

Students utilize CARE’s interactive platform to review patient profiles covering topics such as pregnancy and alcohol abuse, cannabis use in adolescents, pain management and liability for addiction, alcohol withdrawal, and more. Through our additional video content, which is incorporated into the modules, leading addiction scientists and clinicians present the latest information and best practices on 14 topics, including neurobiology of addiction, evidence-based behavioral therapies, medication in the treatment of addiction, and genetics in alcohol and substance abuse disorders.

Curriculum Integration

These cases and videos are designed to be used as stand-alone segments, or in conjunction with current health profession curriculua.

Module List

1: 34-year-old woman – Pregnancy and substance use

2: 16-year-old male – Adolescent and substance use

3: 38-year-old man – Pain management

4: 56-year-old man alcohol use – Withdrawal and brief motivational intervention

5: 34-year-old man – Stimulant use disorder and the genetics of substance use disorders

6: 39-year-old woman – Heroin use and the neurobiology of addiction

7: Neurobiology of addiction

8: Overview of treatment for substance use disorders

9: Evidence-based behavioral therapies for substance use disorders

10: The epidemiology of addiction and psychiatric comorbidity

11: Conceptual approaches to treating substance use in the United States

12: Substance use professionals and medications for the treatment of addiction

Inside the Course

If many patients encountered in primary care provider offices have a substance use problem, then why aren’t future doctors getting the training in Medical School that is clearly needed?
Medical students receive 2-10 hours of education about a disease that strikes 1 in 10 Americans over the age of 12.

2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)

Testimonials

“No matter what specialty medical students choose, they will take care of patients with substance use disorders. These cases encourage them to start thinking about the impact of substance use on health.”

Sharon Levy, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

“The modules are just right. Medical students will be challenged to think about the intersection between substance use and health problems. The physicians in the cases demonstrate how to talk to patients about their substance use in collaborative, non-threatening ways.”

Mark P. Schwartz MD, FAAFP, FASAM, Medical Director, Princeton House Behavioral Health

Aquifer Family Medicine

Exam Room
In collaboration with:
Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM)
The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM)

The 40 interactive virtual patient cases in AquiferSM Family Medicine deliver on the learning objectives of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine’s (STFM) clerkship curriculum, powered by AqueductSM, Aquifer’s teaching and learning platform.

Overview

Aquifer Family Medicine builds clinical competency, fills educational gaps, and helps instill the core values and attitudes of family medicine. The course fosters self-directed and independent study, develops clinical problem-solving skills, and teaches an evidence-based, patient-centered approach to patient care.

Now Available: Embedded Curricular Threads

New embedded threads provide consistent teaching on interdisciplinary Clinical Excellence topics throughout Aquifer’s core courses. Select Family Medicine cases include brief teaching to highlight key principles in palliative care, trauma-informed care, social determinants of health, high value care, diagnostic excellence, and foundations of telemedicine. Learn more…

Key Features

  • Created for educators, by educators, to cover the full range of STFM curriculum
  • Available for institutional subscription or for direct purchase by individual subscribers
  • Access to Aquifer Calibrate: Transformative Assessments for Clinical Learning Mastery, our innovative system for formative assessment, available with your 2024-25 subscription
  • Proven pedagogy that standardizes experiences—overcoming geography, seasonality, and accessibility
  • Evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and continuously updated content
  • Self-assessment questions emphasize key content and enable students to test their knowledge and skills
  • A wealth of source material, tools, and full references in each case
  • Delivered via the Aqueduct teaching and learning platform, which includes user management options, easy reporting on student progress and course usage, plus tools for creating custom courses to match a specific curriculum

Course Content

This course covers the complete STFM Family Medicine Clerkship Curriculum. Course content includes five Aquifer Pediatrics cases and two Aquifer Internal Medicine cases to help cover the full range of family medicine learning objectives.

Curriculum Integration

Aquifer Family Medicine can be used by third-year medical students, PA students, and NP/DNP students as a complement to a clerkship or course on family medicine.

Assessment

Aquifer Calibrate, an innovative system for formative assessments, is available for Aquifer Family Medicine. Calibrate combines the concepts of test-enhanced learning and distributed practice to facilitate efficient study planning and self-directed learning for students, and identify at-risk students and curricular gaps for faculty.  Calibrate is available with your 2024-25 institutional subscription to Family Medicine.

Case List

Family Medicine 01: 45-year-old female wellness visit

Family Medicine 02: 55-year-old male wellness visit

Family Medicine 03: 70-year-old female with insomnia

Family Medicine 04: 19-year-old female with sports injury

Family Medicine 05: 30-year-old female with palpitations

Family Medicine 06: 57-year-old female diabetes care visit

Family Medicine 07: 53-year-old male with leg swelling

Family Medicine 08: 54-year-old male with elevated blood pressure

Family Medicine 09: 50-year-old female with palpitations

Family Medicine 10: 45-year-old male with low back pain

Family Medicine 11: 74-year-old female with knee pain

Family Medicine 12: 16-year-old female with vaginal bleeding and UCG

Family Medicine 13: 40-year-old male with a persistent cough

Family Medicine 14: 35-year-old female with missed period

Family Medicine 15: 42-year-old male with right upper quadrant pain

Family Medicine 16: 68-year-old male with skin lesion

Family Medicine 17: 55-year-old post-menopausal female with vaginal bleeding

Family Medicine 18: 24-year-old female with headaches

Family Medicine 19: 39-year-old male with epigastric pain

Family Medicine 20: 28-year-old female with lower abdominal pain

Family Medicine 21: 12-year-old female with fever

Family Medicine 22: 70-year-old male with new-onset unilateral weakness

Family Medicine 23: 5-year-old female with sore throat

Family Medicine 24: 4-week-old female with fussiness

Family Medicine 25: 38-year-old male with shoulder pain

Family Medicine 26: 55-year-old male with fatigue

Family Medicine 27: 17-year-old male with groin pain

Family Medicine 28: 58-year-old male with shortness of breath

Family Medicine 29: 72-year-old male with dementia

Family Medicine 30: 27-year-old female labor and delivery

Family Medicine 31: 66-year-old female with shortness of breath

Family Medicine 32: 33-year-old female with painful periods

Family Medicine 33: 28-year-old female with dizziness

Pediatrics 01: Newborn male infant evaluation and care

Pediatrics 02: Infant female well-child visits (2, 6, and 9 months)

Pediatrics 03: 3-year-old male well-child visit

Pediatrics 04: 8-year-old male well-child check

Pediatrics 13: 6-year-old female with chronic cough

Internal Medicine 02: 60-year-old female with chest pain

Internal Medicine 16: 45-year-old male who is overweight

From Our Cases

User Story

Learn how Aquifer Family Medicine can benefit medical students and faculty in your program:

Testimonial

“In the first and second years of medical school, you learn a lot about physiology and diseases—usually by organ system. Aquifer Family Medicine gives you the opportunity to start thinking about the way that patients actually present—and begin to apply what you already know. The cases are a wonderful way to start turning medical facts into clinical judgment. I just wished I had used them earlier and more often.”


Third-Year Medical Student

Aquifer Family Medicine Course Board

Aquifer Geriatrics

Aquifer Geriatrics
In collaboration with:
American Geriatrics Society

The 28 virtual patient cases in Aquifer Geriatrics provide the AGS National Online Curriculum for medical and health professions students.

Overview

Aquifer Geriatrics helps students learn the principles of geriatric medicine and integrate these principles into the care of their patients. With a range of cases spanning many specialties, the content stands alone as an educational tool or enriches an existing curriculum.

As life spans increase, it becomes even more vital to understand the kind of health care our patients need as they age. It’s critical for healthcare providers to understand the unique health circumstances and preferences that come with aging so they can work in collaboration with one another—especially important given that more than half of older Americans are managing two or more chronic conditions.

Now Available: Embedded Curricular Threads

New embedded threads provide consistent teaching on interdisciplinary Clinical Excellence topics throughout Aquifer’s core courses. Select geriatrics cases include new content woven into our existing cases to highlight key principles in palliative care, trauma-informed care, social determinants of health, high value care, diagnostic excellence, and foundations of telemedicine. Learn more…

Publications

In the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS), “Introducing Aquifer Geriatrics, the American Geriatrics Society National Online Curriculum”, discusses the development of this course, highlights best practices to incorporate cases in a variety of teaching settings, and describes teaching methods that utilize the curriculum to create a robust experience for learners.

An accompanying editorial also published in JAGS states that Aquifer Geriatrics is “helping to fill the gap that is left by the shortage of geriatrics educators” and prepares the field to “play the long game,” thanks to innovative solutions to education.

Course Details

Key Features

  • Created for educators, by educators, as the American Geriatrics Society national online curriculum for medical and health professions students
  • Available for institutional subscription or for direct purchase by individual subscribers
  • Students discover the physiological, psychological, and functional changes that occur with aging and the multifaceted aspects of geriatric care
  • Cases are function-focused and incorporate common diseases in older adults
  • Proven pedagogy that standardizes experiences—overcoming geography, seasonality, and accessibility
  • Evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and continuously updated content
  • A wealth of source material—including embedded assessment questions and full references—in each case
  • Delivered via the Aqueduct teaching and learning platform, which includes user management tools, easy reporting on student progress and course usage, plus tools for creating custom courses to match a specific curriculum

Course Content & Competencies

Our cases were developed collaboratively with authors from 35 different institutions. Topics covered include medication management, dementia, osteoarthritis, pain management, hospitalization, and many more.

The Aquifer Geriatrics cases have been mapped to the AAMC/JAHF Minimum Geriatrics Competencies for Medical Students.

Click on the image below to enlarge the table.

Curriculum Integration

The course is ideal for use within a geriatrics, internal medicine, or family medicine clerkship, or as a baseline boot camp for a Geriatrics resident or fellow. Individual cases can be integrated into another clerkship or clinical training with an emphasis on neurology, psychiatry, emergency medicine, or OB/GYN. With Aqueduct, combining these cases with another course to build a custom curriculum is easy.

Since many institutions do not have dedicated Geriatric Medicine clerkships, the cases have been further categorized and matched to medical specialties and curricula to provide a framework for assigning cases across various clerkships, like Neurology, Psychiatry, and Surgery.

Click on the image below to enlarge the table.

Aquifer Geriatrics Cases Mapped to Clerkships

Case List

Geriatrics 01: 85-year-old female using anticoagulants

Geriatrics 02: 85-year-old female with hypoglycemia

Geriatrics 03: 91-year-old female with urinary incontinence

Geriatrics 04: 85-year-old female with dementia

Geriatrics 05: 79-year-old female with agitation

Geriatrics 06: 85-year-old female with delirium

Geriatrics 07: 78-year-old male with depression

Geriatrics 08: 86-year-old female and decisional capacity in the context of elder abuse

Geriatrics 09: 82-year-old female and functional status and home safety

Geriatrics 10: 72-year-old male with weight loss and addressing sexuality in older adults

Geriatrics 11: 75-year-old female with neck pain (osteopathic approach)

Geriatrics 12: 78-year-old female and falls

Geriatrics 13: 75-year-old male and 80-year-old female, prognosis and screening for older adults

Geriatrics 14: 88-year-old female with dementia and feeding issues

Geriatrics 15: 75-year-old male with abdominal pain

Geriatrics 16: 87-year-old male with low back pain

Geriatrics 17: 86-year-old female with nursing home acquired pneumonia

Geriatrics 18: 83-year-old female with urinary tract symptoms

Geriatrics 19: 70-year-old male with urinary concerns

Geriatrics 20: 79-year-old male with severe pain and low health literacy

Geriatrics 21: 70-year-old female with symptomatic end-stage COPD: An Interprofessional Case

Geriatrics 22: 74-year-old male and hazards of hospitalization: geriatric patient safety in the acute care setting

Geriatrics 23: 70-year-old female and hazards of hospitalization: transitions of care and discharge planning for geriatric inpatients

Geriatrics 24: 78-year-old female with pressure injuries

Geriatrics 25: 85-year-old male and restraints

Geriatrics 26: 78-year-old male and cultural humility in geriatric care

Geriatrics 27: Advance care planning

Geriatrics 28: Frailty in three patients

From Our Cases

User Stories

Learn how Aquifer Geriatrics can benefit medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty in your program:

On-Demand Webinar

Best Practices for Using Aquifer Geriatrics Across the Curriculum
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5 Ways to Use Aquifer Geriatrics

Blog: 5 Ways to Use Aquifer Geriatrics

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Aquifer Geriatrics Course Board

Aquifer Internal Medicine

Aquifer Internal Medicine
Aquifer Internal Medicine
In collaboration with:
Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine

The 36 interactive virtual patient cases in Aquifer Internal Medicine deliver on the learning objectives of Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine’s (CDIM) General Internal Medicine Core Medicine clerkship curriculum.

Overview

Aquifer Internal Medicine builds clinical competency and fills educational gaps in internal medicine curricula. The course fosters self-directed and independent study, develops clinical problem-solving skills, and teaches an evidence-based, patient-centered approach to health care.

Now Available: Embedded Curricular Threads

New embedded threads provide consistent teaching on interdisciplinary Clinical Excellence topics throughout Aquifer’s core courses. Select Internal Medicine cases include new content woven into our existing cases to highlight key principles in palliative care, trauma-informed care, social determinants of health, high value care, diagnostic excellence, and foundations of telemedicine. Learn more…

Key Features

  • Created for educators, by educators, to cover the full range of CDIM’s curriculum
  • Available for institutional subscription or for direct purchase by individual subscribers
  • Access to Aquifer Calibrate: Transformative Assessments for Clinical Learning Mastery, our innovative system for formative assessment, available with your 2024-25 subscription
  • Innovative Clinical Decision-Making Exam in the key features format available at no additional cost
  • Proven pedagogy that standardizes experiences—overcoming geography, seasonality, and accessibility
  • Evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and continuously updated content
  • Self-assessment questions emphasize key content and enable students to test their knowledge and skills
  • A wealth of source material, tools, and full references in each case
  • Delivered via the Aqueduct teaching and learning platform, which includes user management options, easy reporting on student progress and course usage, plus tools for creating custom courses to match a specific curriculum

Course Content

Realistic case scenarios demonstrating best practices create an invaluable bridge from content to practice for our students. Aquifer Internal Medicine cases help students to develop the clinical reasoning skills critical to becoming successful practitioners.

Curriculum Integration

Although designed for use by third-year medical students, Aquifer Internal Medicine is an excellent learning tool for many healthcare professionals. Cases can be assigned to supplement clinical experience to ensure students encounter all of the desired cases in internal medicine, removing the chance that they will miss vital clinical experiences.

Clinical Decision-Making Exam

Aquifer Calibrate, an innovative system for formative assessments, is available for Aquifer Internal Medicine. Calibratecombines the concepts of test-enhanced learning and distributed practice to facilitate efficient study planning and self-directed learning for students, and identifies at-risk students and curricular gaps for faculty. Calibrate is available with your 2024-25 institutional subscription to Internal Medicine.

The Aquifer Internal Medicine Clinical Decision-Making Exam aligns directly with CDIM’s national curriculum and provides a unique way to assess individual students’ clinical decision-making skills. This exam, validated in a study published in Academic Medicine, focuses on challenging decisions in diagnosis and management to target critical decision points that students will encounter in clinical practice.

LEARN MORE

Self-Assessment Questions

After completing each case, students will have the option to apply their new knowledge and skills by completing five single-best-answer vignette-style self-assessment questions. Each question includes clear explanations of the correct and incorrect responses for immediate feedback to students. All self-assessment questions are available to internal medicine subscribers.

Case List

Internal Medicine 01: 49-year-old male with chest pain

Internal Medicine 02: 60-year-old female with chest pain

Internal Medicine 03: Four patients with syncope

Internal Medicine 04: 67-year-old female with shortness of breath and lower-leg swelling

Internal Medicine 05: 55-year-old male with fatigue

Internal Medicine 06: 45-year-old male with hypertension

Internal Medicine 07: 28-year-old female with light-headedness

Internal Medicine 08: 55-year-old male with chronic disease management

Internal Medicine 09: 55-year-old female with upper abdominal pain and vomiting

Internal Medicine 10: 48-year-old female with diarrhea and dizziness

Internal Medicine 11: 45-year-old male with abnormal liver chemistries

Internal Medicine 12: 55-year-old male with lower abdominal pain

Internal Medicine 13: 65-year-old female for annual physical

Internal Medicine 14: 18-year-old female for pre-college physical

Internal Medicine 15: 50-year-old male with cough and nasal congestion

Internal Medicine 16: 45-year-old male who is overweight

Internal Medicine 17: 28-year-old male with a pigmented lesion

Internal Medicine 18: 75-year-old male with memory problems

Internal Medicine 19: 42-year-old female with anemia

Internal Medicine 20: 48-year-old female with HIV

Internal Medicine 21: 78-year-old male with fever, lethargy, and anorexia

Internal Medicine 22: 71-year-old male with cough and fatigue

Internal Medicine 23: 54-year-old female with fatigue

Internal Medicine 24: 52-year-old female with headache, vomiting, and fever

Internal Medicine 25: 75-year-old female with altered mental status

Internal Medicine 26: 58-year-old male with altered mental status and experiencing homelessness

Internal Medicine 27: 65-year-old male with hypercalcemia

Internal Medicine 28: 70-year-old male with shortness of breath and cough

Internal Medicine 29: 55-year-old female with fever and chills

Internal Medicine 30: 55-year-old with leg pain

Internal Medicine 31: 40-year-old male with knee pain

Internal Medicine 32: 39-year-old female with joint pain

Internal Medicine 33: 49-year-old female with confusion

Internal Medicine 34: 55-year-old male with low back pain

Internal Medicine 35: 35-year-old female with three weeks of fever

Internal Medicine 36: 49-year-old male with ascites

From Our Cases

Educator Guide Available

Internal Medicine Educator Guide
Course Overview – Integration Strategies – Case Synopses – Learning Objectives – Features & Resources

The Educators Guide—available to all subscribers—provides a quick reference guide for all cases, resources, and features included with Aquifer Internal Medicine. The Educator Guide is ideal for educators who are getting started using Aquifer, or experienced users who want to be sure they are taking advantage of Aquifer’s extensive resources and tools.

Educator Guides are available in the Educator Resources section of your Aquifer account. Learn more…

User Story Video

Learn how Aquifer Internal Medicine can benefit medical students and faculty in your program:

Aquifer Internal Medicine Course Board

Aquifer Pediatrics

Aquifer Pediatrics
Aquifer Pediatrics
In collaboration with:
The Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP)
The Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP)

The 32 interactive virtual patient cases in Aquifer Pediatrics deliver on the learning objectives of the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP) clerkship curriculum.

Overview

Aquifer Pediatrics helps students develop clinical reasoning skills critical to becoming successful practitioners. Our virtual cases provide key content correlated to COMSEP’s learning objectives—a proven path to success in developing clinical reasoning skills.

Now Available: Embedded Curricular Threads

New embedded threads provide consistent teaching on interdisciplinary Clinical Excellence topics throughout Aquifer’s core courses. Select Family Medicine cases include new content woven into our existing cases to highlight key principles in palliative care, trauma-informed care, social determinants of health, high value care, diagnostic excellence, and foundations of telemedicine. Learn more…

Key Features

  • Created for educators, by educators, to cover the full range of COMSEP’s curriculum
  • Available for institutional subscription or for direct purchase by individual subscribers
  • Access to Aquifer Calibrate: Transformative Assessments for Clinical Learning Mastery, our innovative system for formative assessment, available with your 2024-25 subscription
  • Proven pedagogy that standardizes experiences—overcoming geography, seasonality, and accessibility
  • Evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and continuously updated content
  • Self-assessment questions emphasize key content and enable students to test their knowledge and skills
  • A wealth of source material, tools, and full references in each case
  • Course-specific student and educator resources, including active learning modules (TBL-style application exercises), interactive table of childhood developmental milestones, and a case analysis tool
  • Delivered via the Aqueduct learning management system, which includes user management options, easy reporting on student progress and course usage, plus tools for creating custom courses to match a specific curriculum

Course Content

With realistic case scenarios that demonstrate best practices, our course builds a bridge from content to practice for our students. Aquifer Pediatrics’ interactive virtual patient cases are based on the COMSEP curriculum. The cases ensure that students are exposed to all the various clinical scenarios, irrespective of location or time of year.

Curriculum Integration

Aquifer Pediatrics can be used by third-year medical students, PA students, and Nurse Practitioner students as a complement to a clerkship or course on pediatrics.

Assessment

Aquifer Calibrate, an innovative system for formative assessments, is available for Aquifer Pediatrics. Calibrate combines the concepts of test-enhanced learning and distributed practice to facilitate efficient study planning and self-directed learning for students and identify at-risk students and curricular gaps for faculty.  Calibrate is available with your 2024-25 institutional subscription to Pediatrics.

Case List

Pediatrics 01: Newborn male infant evaluation and care

Pediatrics 02: Infant female well-child visits (2, 6, and 9 months)

Pediatrics 03: 3-year-old male well-child visit

Pediatrics 04: 8-year-old male well-child check

Pediatrics 05: 16-year-old female health maintenance visit

Pediatrics 06: 16-year-old male preparticipation evaluation

Pediatrics 07: 2-hour-old male newborn with respiratory distress

Pediatrics 08: 6-day-old female with jaundice

Pediatrics 09: 2-week-old female with lethargy

Pediatrics 10: 6-month-old female infant with a fever

Pediatrics 11: 4-year-old male with fever and adenopathy

Pediatrics 12: 10-month-old female with a cough

Pediatrics 13: 6-year-old female with chronic cough

Pediatrics 14: 18-month-old female with congestion

Pediatrics 15: Two siblings: 4-year-old male and 8-week-old male with vomiting

Pediatrics 16: 7-year-old female with abdominal pain and vomiting

Pediatrics 17: 4-year-old female refusing to walk

Pediatrics 18: 6-week-old male with poor feeding

Pediatrics 19: 16-month-old male with first seizure

Pediatrics 20: 7-year-old male with a headache

Pediatrics 21: 6-year-old male with bruising

Pediatrics 22: 16-year-old female with abdominal pain

Pediatrics 23: 15-year-old female with lethargy and fever

Pediatrics 24: 2-year-old female with altered mental status

Pediatrics 25: 2-month-old male with apnea

Pediatrics 26: 9-week-old male not gaining weight

Pediatrics 27: 8-year-old female with abdominal pain

Pediatrics 28: 18-month-old male with developmental delay

Pediatrics 29: Infact male with hypotonia

Pediatrics 30: 2-year-old male with sickle cell disease

Pediatrics 31: 5-year-old female with puffy eyes

Pediatrics 32: A day in pediatric dermatology clinic

From Our Cases

Educator Resources

In addition to the 32 cases included with this course, the Aquifer Educators Consortium has developed Educator Resources to accompany this course, available to all subscribers. Resources include valuable teaching and learning tools to increase student engagement and maximize efficiency for faculty.

To access these tools, sign in to your Aquifer account and visit the Educator Resources section.

Aquifer Pediatrics Educator Guide
Educator Guide Available

Course Overview – Integration Strategies – Educator Resources – Learning Objectives

The Educator Guide—available to all subscribers—provides a quick reference guide for all cases, resources, and features included with Aquifer Pediatrics. The Educator Guide is ideal for educators who are getting started using Aquifer, or experienced users who want to be sure they are taking advantage of Aquifer’s extensive resources and tools. Learn more…

Active Learning Modules, Case Analysis Tool, & More

Active Learning Modules

These team-based learning exercises have been thoughtfully prepared with the aim of minimizing teacher preparation time and maximizing learner achievement. Learn more about the Pediatrics Active Learning Modules.

  • Fever Module
  • Immunizations Module
  • Patient Safety Module
  • Child Development Module
Case Analysis Tool

The toolkit contains a structured worksheet completed by the students as they work through the virtual patient case, designed to enhance the development of clinical reasoning skills. Each step mirrors the process through which clinicians gather and process information about a patient, leading up to the development of an initial evaluation and treatment plan. Answer keys are included for most cases. Learn more about the Case Analysis Tool.

Questions for Further Consideration

A series of questions available to promote further discussion of some of the important points in each case. These can be used to emphasize areas such as basic science, clinical reasoning, management, public health, and communications. The questions are formatted on an excel sheet to allow for easy sorting by case or topic

User Story Video

Learn how Aquifer Pediatrics can benefit medical students and faculty in your program:

Aquifer Pediatrics Course Board

Aquifer Radiology

Aquifer Radiology
Aquifer Radiology
In collaboration with:
Association of Academic Radiology & Alliance of Medical Student Educators in Radiology
AAR horizontal Logo

The 21 interactive virtual patient cases in Aquifer Radiology deliver on the learning objectives of the Association of Academic Radiology (AAR) and the Alliance of Medical Student Educators in Radiology (AMSER) medical student curriculum.

Overview

Aquifer Radiology’s virtual patient cases are realistic case scenarios that demonstrate best practices—helping students develop clinical reasoning skills that bridge the gap from classroom to practice. In an era of the increasing importance of evidence-based decision-making and reliance on imaging, an understanding of the principles and applications of radiology is vital for today’s healthcare professionals. The National Board of Medical Examiners has recognized this by increasing the imaging component of all United States Medical Licensing Examination exams.

Now Available: Embedded Curricular Threads

New embedded threads provide consistent teaching on interdisciplinary Clinical Excellence topics throughout Aquifer’s core courses. Select Radiology cases include new content woven into our existing cases to highlight key principles in palliative care, trauma-informed care, social determinants of health, high value care, diagnostic excellence, and foundations of telemedicine. Learn more…

Course Details

Key Features

  • Created for educators, by educators, utilizing the American College of Radiology (ACR) Appropriateness criteria
  • Available for institutional subscription or for direct purchase by individual subscribers
  • Access to Aquifer Calibrate: Transformative Assessments for Clinical Learning Mastery, our innovative system for formative assessment, available with your 2024-25 subscription
  • Proven pedagogy that standardizes experiences—overcoming geography, seasonality, and accessibility
  • Evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and continuously updated content
  • Self-assessment questions emphasize key content and enable students to test their knowledge and skills
  • A wealth of source material, tools, and full references in each case
  • Educator resources, including complete flipped classroom PowerPoint workshops for each case—with speaker notes
  • Delivered via the Aqueduct teaching and learning platform, which includes user management options, easy reporting on student progress and course usage, plus tools for creating custom courses to match a specific curriculum

Course Content

Aquifer Radiology cases teach a patient-centered approach to imaging, foster self-directed and independent study, and build clinical problem-solving skills. The realistic case scenarios teach evidence-based decision making and include excellent interactive radiology resources.

Curriculum Integration

These cases can be used as a stand-alone radiology course during a radiology clerkship or elective or incorporated into the appropriate clinical clerkships as part of a custom course created in Aqueduct. For example, the women’s imaging cases can be incorporated into an Ob-Gyn clerkship, thus teaching imaging at an applicable time.

Assessment

Aquifer Calibrate, an innovative system for formative assessments, is available with your 2024-25 Aquifer Radiology institutional subscription. Calibrate combines the concepts of test-enhanced learning and distributed practice to facilitate efficient study planning and self-directed learning for students, and identify at-risk students and curricular gaps for faculty.

Case List

Radiology 01: 23-year-old male: Chest – Infection

Radiology 02: 51-year-old male: Chest – Masses

Radiology 03: 65-year-old male: Chest – Trauma

Radiology 04: 65-year-old female: Chest – Vascular and COPD

Radiology 05: 25-year-old male: GI – Colon and small bowel

Radiology 06: 42-year-old female: GI – Hepatobiliary and pancreas

Radiology 07: 40-year-old female: Renal/GU

Radiology 08: 18-year-old female & 19-year-old male: GI – Trauma

Radiology 09: 34-year-old male: Neuro – Trauma

Radiology 10: 40-year-old male: Neuro – Vascular and HIV

Radiology 11: 8-week old male – Pediatrics A

Radiology 12: 2-month old female – Pediatrics B

Radiology 13: 59-year-old female: MSK – Arthritis, osteomyelitis

Radiology 14: 28-year-old female—Pregnancy and infertility

Radiology 15: 43-year-old female – Malignancy and screening

Radiology 16: Musculoskeletal trauma

Radiology 17: 65-year-old male: Cardiac and Cardiovascular

Radiology 18: Professionalism in Radiology

Radiology 19: 53-year-old female: Oncology

Radiology 20: Interventional Radiology – Vascular

Radiology 21: Interventional Radiology – Nonvascular

From Our Cases

Flipped Classroom Workshops

Complete Aquifer Radiology Flipped Classroom Workshops are available for 18 cases—ready to use in your classroom. Each workshop, designed to be completed in a 60-90 minute session, includes a slide deck with images and annotations, speaker notes, and a facilitator guide.

User Stories

Learn how Aquifer Radiology can benefit medical students, residents, and faculty in your program:

On-Demand Webinar

Best Practices for Using Aquifer Radiology Across the Curriculum
WATCH NOW
5 ways to use Aquifer Radiology

Blog: 5 Ways to Use Aquifer Radiology

READ MORE

Aquifer Radiology Course Board

Aquifer Palliative Care

Overview

Aquifer Palliative Care provides foundational knowledge and practical clinical application of the principles of palliative care that every clinician should know to improve outcomes and quality of life for seriously ill patients and their families.

Aquifer – supported by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations – developed a national, standardized curriculum and online course that addresses critical gaps in palliative care learning across undergraduate medical and health professions education.

Aquifer Palliative Care is part of Aquifer’s Clinical Excellence Case Set, which includes 52 cases covering Palliative Care, Trauma Informed Care, Diagnostic Excellence, High Value Care, Social Determinants of Health, and telemedicine.

Why Primary Palliative Care?

Although palliative care is an established specialty, all clinicians should have the skills to provide patient-centered care. This course focuses on primary palliative care, reaching beyond the specialty—moving toward overcoming clinician shortages, lack of access, and lack of training—to teach what every medical and health professions student should know to improve outcomes and quality of life for seriously ill patients and their families.

Vision: Improve the capacity of the US health professions student to deliver humanistic, compassionate interprofessional care centered around patient goals of care and quality of life by applying evidence-based methods to alleviate the suffering of seriously ill patients and their families through the delivery of primary palliative care.

Just in Time Coverage of Palliative Care Embedded in Select Courses

In addition to the stand-alone cases on Palliative Care included as part of this Clinical Excellence Case Set, select core cases in Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, Neurology, and Radiology now have brief teaching on Palliative Care embedded right into the case in the form of a clinical decision making question.

Together the just-in-time curricular threads combined with the deeper principles and application cases provide a strong foundation in Palliative Care across the curriculum without adding faculty time. Learn more…

LEARN MORE

Key Features

  • Part of Aquifer’s Clinical Excellence Case Set, included with Curricular Partner subscriptions and available by subscription to Limited Subscribers
  • Designed to equip learners with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to provide patient-centered care to their communities regardless of their future specialty
  • Created for educators, by educators, and supported by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
  • Ready-made cases to support self-directed learning, appropriate to supplement pre-clinical or clinical learning
  • Cases take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.
    • Appropriate to support pre-clinical or clinical learning.
    • Can be combined with other cases in a custom course to meet the needs of your specific curriculum.

Course Content

Based on a comprehensive needs assessment, the Aquifer Palliative Care Leadership Team determined the Principles of Primary Palliative Care Excellence to elevate the primary palliative care education and training of all US health professions students, regardless of discipline. Each principle supports the advancement of primary palliative care as a competency for all healthcare professionals.

  1. Alignment of care with the goals, values, and preferences of seriously ill patients based on assessed need.
  2. Interprofessional collaboration and care coordination between patients, families, healthcare teams, and systems.
  3. Evidence-based and holistic care that addresses the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual domains across the illness trajectory from diagnosis to end-of-life.
  4. Equitable access to high-quality, culturally sensitive palliative care services for all patient populations.
  5. Education and advocacy to promote palliative care as a gold standard for serious illness care.

The Aquifer Excellence in Palliative Care cases are designed to teach and apply these principles using clinical scenarios.

Development Process

After the grant award in 2020 from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Aquifer established a Palliative Care Leadership team, a group of interprofessional clinician-educators and content experts representing schools around the US.

In the absence of clear national curricular standards on palliative care in medical and health professions education, the Leadership Team then completed a needs assessment (stakeholder surveys and focus groups) and literature review. After completing the research activities, the leadership team held a consensus conference, synthesizing the literature review and needs assessment findings into a vision statement and key guiding principles.

Using the vision and principles as a framework, the Leadership Team developed a national palliative care curriculum to be delivered through the Aquifer course. Learning objectives were identified, and development work on virtual patient cases began in late 2021. Case development used varied pedagogies to ensure that learners are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to provide patient-centered care to their communities.

Course Structure

All Clinical Excellence Case Sets, including Aquifer Palliative Care, now include:

  • Principles module: covers key definitions, epidemiology, explanations of key principles and why they are important for patient care, and a harm statement that makes it explicit what harm can come to the patient if the principle is not incorporated into practice.
  • Application Cases: Brief, realistic case scenarios that focus on one area of a patient encounter, and are centered around asking students to make important clinical decisions. Content models evidence-based best practices and communication strategies, exploring the real-world impacts on care and potential harm. At the end of each case, a reflection question asks the students to consider key takeaways, implications for their future practice, or personal wellness. Each application case also includes self-assessment questions that extend the learning to other scenarios.

Curriculum Integration

Aquifer Palliative Care is designed for any level student in a medical school or health professions program. The course is an ideal assignment for students to complete as preparation for clinical experiences that include telemedicine. Cases also serve as valuable reference material for students to return to as they need to refresh their knowledge during clinical rotations.

Programs with a current Aquifer subscription will also have faculty and administrator access to an accompanying educator guide. Subscribers will also be able to view student progress reporting and combine the new cases with other Aquifer content in a custom course.

Case List

Available to Aquifer Curricular Partners:

  • 01: Principles of palliative care
  • 02: Palliative care assessment
  • 03: Family meetings and establishing goals of care
  • 04: Advance care planning
  • 05: Interprofessional roles and responsibilities
  • 06: Pharmacologic pain management
  • 07: Supporting patients and families in the grieving process
  • 08: Anxiety and depression in the context of palliative care
  • 09: Understanding disparities in care for patients with serious illness
  • 10: Non-opioid pain management
  • 11: Symptom management (non-pain)
  • 12: Pediatric palliative care
  • 13: Signs and symptoms of dying

Active Learning Modules

Active learning sessions that accompany the Palliative Care course are designed to challenge students to apply what they have learned by studying the Aquifer cases in a real-world scenario. Active learning sessions can be integrated into several clerkships, including Surgery, Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, or an elective in palliative care. These active learning sessions could be completed with inpatients or outpatients.

Palliative Care Project Report

VIEW FULL REPORT

Learn More

On-Demand Webinar

Best Practices & New Tools for Teaching What Every Student Needs to Know About Palliative Care

Podcast

Listen to the Aquifer Educator Connection Podcast with April Zehm, MD, as she describes the Aquifer Palliative Care Leadership team’s creation of a national standardized curriculum and soon-to-be-available online palliative care course focused on preparing students to provide high-quality patient-centered care. She also discusses how faculty can integrate course resources into their pre-clinical and clinical teaching.

Integrated Illness Scripts

Aquifer Sciences Integrated Illness Scripts
Available for Aquifer Curricular Partners & Individual Subscribers

In collaboration with:

International Association of Medical Science Educators

IAMSE logo

Integrated Illness Scripts are designed specifically to promote cognitive integration and provide a framework for learners to link basic science and clinical knowledge. Building on the traditional illness script format, Integrated Illness Scripts (IIS) embed basic science core concepts and causal mechanisms within each clinical feature and display the connections visually through Mechanism of Disease Maps.

Making Connections for Deeper Understanding & Better Clinical Decisions

Bringing together clinical features, epidemiology, and basic science causal mechanisms and core concepts, Integrated Illness Scripts provide a new mental model for advancing cognitive integration in learners and unpacking encapsulated expertise from faculty. This new framework is designed to enable more effective and efficient clinical decision-making.

Trusted Content & Pedagogy

Designed for Integration

The first tools designed specifically for integrating basic and clinical sciences in a variety of learning environments.

For Educators, By Educators

Teams of interdisciplinary educators developed and reviewed content that meets the needs of today’s faculty and students.

Nationally Developed Tools

Fully vetted teaching tools provide a framework that can be applied and adapted to fit the needs of your program.

What is Cognitive Integration?

Cognitive integration is a process that occurs in the minds of learners and experts as they interweave relevant basic science and clinical knowledge when reasoning through a patient problem.

Research shows that the effective cognitive integration of basic and clinical science improves diagnostic accuracy, particularly in novice clinicians.

To learn more, we recommend downloading our white paper, “Fostering Cognitive Integration & Unpacking Expertise: The Need for Integrated Illness Scripts in Medical and Health Professions Education.”

Webinars & Webshops

Webinar: Integrating Basic Science and Clinical Education: Why It’s Important & Tools to Support You

Join Leslie Fall, MD, and Amy Wilson-Delfosse, PhD, with guest presenters Esther Dasari Dale, PhD, and Khiet Ngo, DO, MS, as they discuss the importance of integration of basic science and clinical education, the Aquifer Sciences initiative in collaboration with IAMSE (International Association of Medical Science Educators) to build a national basic science curriculum, and the Integrated Illness Scripts resources from Aquifer.

Table of Contents:

  • 0:00 – Introductions
  • 4:33 – Agenda
  • 6:40 – Barriers to Integration
  • 8:50 – Building a national sciences curriculum
  • 16:37 – Importance of Improving Cognitive Integration
  • 24:33 – Curriculum Database in use with Esther Dasari Dale, PhD
  • 30:53 – Anatomy of an Integrated Illness Script
  • 37:42 – Integrated Illness Scripts in Preclinical with Leslie Fall, MD
  • 39:24 – Integrated Illness Scripts in Clinical Year with Amy Wilson-Delfosse, PhD
  • 42:56 – Integrated Illness Scripts Across the Curriculum with Khiet Ngo, DO, MS
  • 46:50 – Aquifer Tools for Cognitive Integration
  • 48:45 – Q&A
  • 57:00 – Resources
Teaching with Aquifer Integrated Illness Scripts: A Quickstart Guide

Get up to speed on Integrated Illness Scripts (IIS) and find out how easy it is to start using them in your course or program.  Whether you’re a clerkship director, clinical faculty, or basic science educator, Integrated Illness Scripts can help your students make key connections between basic science and clinical knowledge, driving a deeper understanding and improving clinical decision-making skills.

Table of Contents:

  • 0:00 – Welcome
  • 4:22 – Introduction to Integrated Illness Scripts
  • 8:28 – About Cognitive Integration
  • 12:45 – What are Integrated Illness Scripts?
  • 15:48 – Live Integrated Illness Script Tour in Aqueduct
  • 24:39 – Using Integrated Illness Scripts
  • 36:30 – Q&A

Development & Contributors

Authors

The Aquifer Sciences Integrated Illness Scripts were created through a national, multi-institution authoring project. Following a national Call for Participation, teams from six schools were selected to draft Integrated Illness Scripts on common conditions seen in core rotations, leveraging the Aquifer Sciences Open Curriculum Database. Teams at each institution included clinician educators, basic science faculty, and medical students.

Integrated Illness Script Authoring Schools:

  • Albert Einstein College of Medicine
  • Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
  • Loma Linda University School of Medicine
  • Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
  • University of Utah School of Medicine
  • Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine
Peer Review Process

Following the completion of the authoring process, each script underwent an extensive peer review process that included subject experts from the Aquifer Sciences Leadership Team and basic science and clinician educators.

Aquifer is grateful for the hard work of all of our contributors on this project and looks forward to making these important new teaching and learning tools available.

View All Contributors

Publications

Article:

“Thinking Slow More Quickly: Development of Integrated Illness Scripts to Support Cognitively Integrated Learning and Improve Clinical Decision-Making”

Medical Science Educator; May 4, 2021

VIEW ARTICLE

White Paper:

“Fostering Cognitive Integration & Unpacking Expertise: The Need for Integrated Illness Scripts in Medical and Health Professions Education”
VIEW WHITE PAPER

Accessing Integrated Illness Scripts

Aquifer Curricular Partner programs enjoy free access to:

Individual Learners can also purchase the full set of Integrated Illness Scripts. Please note that this access does not include educator resources or administrative reporting.

EXPLORE YOUR ACCESS

List of Available Integrated Illness Scripts

  • ABO Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn
  • Alzheimer Disease
  • Appendicitis
  • Asthma
  • Atherosclerotic Coronary Artery Disease (ACAD)
  • Cholecystitis (Acute)
  • Choledocholithiasis
  • Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
  • Crohn Disease
  • Deep Vein Thrombosis – Lower Extremity (DVT)
  • Diabetes Mellitus – Type 1 (T1DM)
  • Diabetes Mellitus – Type 2 (T2DM)
  • Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA)
  • Encephalitis (Viral)
  • Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)
  • Heart Failure
  • Hepatitis A Viral Infection
  • Herpes Zoster (Shingles)
  • Infantile Hypertrophic Pyloric Stenosis
  • Influenza
  • Meningitis (Bacterial)
  • Myocardial Infarction (with ST-Segment Elevation) (MI)
  • Myocardial Ischemia
  • Newborn Jaundice – Breastfeeding
  • Newborn Jaundice – Physiologic
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Pancreatitis (Acute)
  • Parkinson Disease
  • Pneumonia
  • Pneumothorax
  • Pulmonary Embolism (PE)
  • Rheumatoid Arthritis
  • Shock – Cardiogenic
  • Shock – Hypovolemic
  • Shock – Septic
  • Stroke – Hemorrhagic (Intracerebral – Left Putamen)
  • Stroke – Ischemic (Left Middle Cerebral Artery)
  • Transient Ischemic Attack (Left Middle Cerebral Artery)
  • Ulcerative Colitis
  • Urinary Tract Infection: Acute Cystitis
  • Urinary Tract Infection: Pyelonephritis

What is an Aquifer Curricular Partner?

Aquifer Curricular Partners receive discounted access to the full library of Aquifer content, exclusive access to new learning tools and assessments, and more.

LEARN MORE: AQUIFER CURRICULAR PARTNERS

Anatomy of An Integrated Illness Script

A live demo of an Integrated Illness Script is now available. To access the demo, you can either register for free access or sign in using your Aquifer account. Click on the button below to get started.

VIEW DEMO INTEGRATED ILLNESS SCRIPT - ASTHMA

Overview

Overview

For each condition, Integrated Illness Scripts include:

Overview – Epidemiology – Clinical Features (up to 6) – Implications for Further Work Up – Implications for Management – Mechanism of Disease Maps

Epidemiology

Epidemiology

This section provides the public health context of the condition, covering gender, peak incidence, risk factors, and predisposing conditions related to this diagnosis.

Clinical Features (up to 6)

Clinical Features (Up to 6)

For the given diagnosis, the Integrated Illness Script includes six prototypical clinical features seen commonly in patients with this condition.

Within each clinical feature, the Integrated Illness Script describes the underlying basic science causal mechanisms that explain why a patient with that diagnosis displays that clinical finding.

Implications for Management & Further Work Up

Implications for Management & Further Work Up

These sections provide students an opportunity to reflect and take notes on how this knowledge will influence their clinical practice in diagnosing and treating a patient with this condition. Responses to these sections are visible in reports for both students and faculty.

Mechanism of Disease Maps

Mechanism of Disease Maps

Mechanism of Disease Maps trace the steps of pathophysiologic mechanisms from the underlying causes of disease to the observable and measurable clinical signs and symptoms.

Providing a visual representation of the relationship between the “original insult”, key findings, clinical features, and the basic science mechanisms, MOD Maps enable students to see and integrate a more holistic view of the basic science knowledge relevant to the given condition.

Using Integrated Illness Scripts

Aquifer Integrated Illness Scripts are designed to be used in a variety of learning settings, from the classroom to the clinic.

Learn More: Using Integrated Illness Scripts

Aquifer Sciences Board

Aquifer Sciences Initiative

In collaboration with:

International Association of Medical Science Educators

IAMSE logo

The Aquifer Sciences Initiative is a partnership between Aquifer and the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) to develop and disseminate teaching and learning tools that promote cognitive integration and collaborative teaching of basic and clinical sciences in health professions education.

Overview

The Aquifer Sciences curriculum and Integrated Illness Scripts are being developed by a nationally representative and multi-institutional team of over 100 leading science and clinical educators drawn from eleven core basic science disciplines and nine major clinical disciplines, working in collaboration with senior medical student curriculum interns selected through a competitive national process.

Goals

The goal of the Aquifer Sciences Initiative is to provide evidence-based teaching and learning resources that promote:

  1. Effective cognitive integration of the basic and clinical sciences by clinical learners, ensuring excellence in clinical decision making that places patient care, quality, value and safety at a premium.
  2. Productive and collaborative teaching by basic and clinical science faculty to ensure learner’s foundational basic science knowledge is effectively organized for clinical practice and life-long learning.

Project Phases

Sciences-database-icon
Aquifer Sciences Open Curriculum Database

Available to the Public (Inquire for Free Access)

The Aquifer Sciences curriculum is the first nationally-developed and publicly available curriculum that comprehensively outlines the core basic sciences concepts that must be understood and mastered by health professions learners in order to provide safe, routine patient care. The database covers:

  • 11 Basic science disciplines
  • 11 Clinical disciplines
  • 106 Core concepts
  • 785 Learning objectives
  • 245 Common conditions
  • 5 Clinical decisions
  • 15 Systems
View Database
Scripts-icon
Aquifer Sciences Integrated Illness Scripts

Available by Subscription

Building on the traditional illness script format, Integrated Illness Scripts embed basic science core concepts as causal and explanatory mechanisms associated with clinical features. Scripts provide a mental model that helps students make connections and form a deeper understanding to make better, safer clinical decisions.

Learn More

Aquifer Sciences Contributors

The Aquifer Sciences initiative curriculum is developed by over 100 leading science and clinical educators from institutions across the nation.

View All Sciences Contributors

Aquifer Sciences Course Board

Testimonials

“Finally, we have a means by which to bridge the gap between basic sciences and clinical medicine!”

Amy Wilson-Delfosse, PhD. Professor of Pharmacology, Associate Dean for Curriculum, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

“I would have much appreciated learning from this curriculum during my transition from the classroom to the wards.”

Fourth-Year Medical Student

WISE-SURGERY (Formerly WISE-MD)

Logo for NYU Grossman WISE-Surgery

In collaboration with:
NYU Grossman School of Medicine

WISE-Surgery (formerly WISE-MD) has been developed through a joint effort of NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the Association of Surgical Education (ASE).

A collection of 40 multimedia modules designed to enhance the teaching of common surgical problems and practices to medical students, residents, nurses, and allied health workers.

Distributed by Aquifer on behalf of NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Available through an independent learning platform from your Aquifer account.

Overview

WISE-Surgery has been created to address gaps in healthcare learners’ surgical education resulting from shortened hospital stays and increased use of outpatient facilities for pre and post-surgical care.

The offering leverages a mix of instructional technologies, including computer animation and live surgical video, to deliver a self-directed learning experience in which the important principles related to the diagnosis and treatment of surgical illnesses are taught.

Two categories of content are included in WISE-Surgery: case-based and skill-based. The case-based modules focus on twenty-two different surgical scenarios related to specific disease processes and interventions. They were designed to follow the typical course of a patient from the initial presentation to the physical examination, laboratory testing and radiological imaging, preoperative preparation, surgery, and recovery.

The modules include patient/physician interactions to stress the importance of professionalism and communication. The eighteen skills-based modules focus on professionalism and practical clinical skills including suturing, ultrasound, and knot tying.

Advanced Communication Skills Module

The WISE-Surgery team is proud to announce a new module on Implicit Bias created in collaboration with The Empathy Project. The module features an animated film called The Elephant in the Waiting Room created by The Empathy Project. The film focuses on Implicit Bias in the healthcare workspace. Dr. Christin Drake, Clinical Associate Professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, uses the animated film to walk learners through how to address and reflect upon one’s own implicit bias.

All WISE-Surgery subscribers have access to this new module via the Skills tab.

Key Features

  • Models physician-patient interaction during history taking, physical exam, decision making and postoperative care
  • Demonstrates the procedures and techniques of a patient physical exam
  • Reviews the appropriate use and interpretation of targeted laboratory and imaging studies
  • Demonstrates various surgical interventions while outlining specific steps and considerations
  • Reviews the risk factors and management considerations related to post-operative care
  • Provides additional multimedia resources for more in-depth review of specific topics
  • Reports track progress and document completion of Case Modules
  • Over 200 vignette-based questions embedded within the Case Modules

Course Coverage

  • Introduces the fundamentals, epidemiology and pathophysiology in 22 simulated diseased based cases
  • Re-enforces professionalism and interpersonal communication (LCME 7.8)
  • Allows students to follow an entire case for each common surgical condition (LCME 6.2, 8.8)
  • Ensures a consistent experience despite site and instructor variability (LCME 6.2, 8.7)
  • Can be assigned easily to remedy experience gaps caused by patient flow (LCME 8.6)
  • Lets students assess their clinical reasoning with 270 case-based questions (LCME 6.3, 7.4, 9.7)
  • Self-paced with ability to speed up and repeat content (LCME 6.3)

Curriculum Integration

WISE-Surgery has been widely used as part of the curriculum for surgical clerkships. Some institutions have opted to replace some of their traditional lectures covering basic surgical diseases with WISE-Surgery modules. Self-directed review of the WISE-Surgery modules eliminates disruption of the clinical experience caused by assigned lectures while maintaining a high-quality learning experience. For schools with multiple clinical sites, WISE-Surgery permits a uniformity of content for all student clerks across locations. The modules have also been used by students to prepare for observation of surgical procedures. The WISE-Surgery cases also provide an opportunity for group discussion during direct instruction.

Case List

Two categories of content are included in WISE-Surgery: surgical case-based and clinical skills based.

Case-based (tracked for completion)
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms
Adrenal Adenoma
Anorectal Disease
Appendicitis
Bariatric
Bowel Obstruction
Breast Cancer
Burn Management
Carotid Stenosis
Cholecystitis
Colon Cancer
Diverticulitis
Hypercalcemia
Inguinal Hernia
Lung Cancer
Pancreatitis
Pediatric Hernia
Pediatric Pyloric Stenosis
Skin Cancer
Thyroid Nodule
Trauma Resuscitation
Venous Thromboembolism

Skills (not tracked for completion, for student review)
Advanced Communication Skills: Empathy
Advanced Communication Skills: Implicit Bias
Best Practices
Epidural placement technique
Foley catheter placement
Surgical Instruments
Suturing and instrument tie
Two-handed knot tie
Ultrasound Basic Principles
Ultrasound: Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
Ultrasound: ABI
Ultrasound: Breast
Ultrasound: Carotid Artery
Ultrasound: Cholelithiasis / Cholecystitis
Ultrasound: E-Fast Exam
Ultrasound: For Vascular Access
Ultrasound: Thyroid
Ultrasound: Venous

Inside the Course

Aquifer Telemedicine

Overview

Aquifer Telemedicine provides an overview of key foundational knowledge and skills to help students prepare for telehealth experiences. In total, all four cases should take students less than an hour to complete, providing a fast, effective tool for faculty to incorporate this rapidly expanding facet of healthcare into their teaching.

Aquifer Telemedicine is part of Aquifer’s Clinical Excellence Case Set, which includes 52 cases covering Palliative Care, Trauma Informed Care, Diagnostic Excellence, High Value Care, Social Determinants of Health, and Telemedine.

Just in Time Coverage of Telemedicine Embedded in Select Cases

In addition to the stand-alone cases on Telemedicine included as part of this Clinical Excellence Case Set, select core cases in Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, Neurology, and Radiology now have brief teaching on Telemedicine embedded right into the case in the form of a clinical decision making question.

Together the just-in-time curricular threads combined with the deeper principles and application cases provide a strong foundation in Telemedicine across the curriculum without adding faculty time. Learn more…

Key Features

  • Part of Aquifer’s Clinical Excellence Case Set, included with Curricular Partner subscriptions and available by subscription to Limited Subscribers
  • Ready-made cases for to support self-directed learning, appropriate to supplement pre-clinical or clinical learning
  • Cases take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.
  • Appropriate to support pre-clinical or clinical learning.
  • Can be combined with other cases in a custom course to meet the needs of your specific curriculum.

Course Content

These short cases are a quick and easy way for students to become familiar with the principles and practice of telemedicine through self-directed learning. The cases provide a key base of knowledge, guiding learners through building a patient history based on clinical condition, performing a physical exam, and how to manage a patient and escalate care through telemedicine. In total, all four cases should take students less than an hour to complete, providing a fast, effective tool for faculty to incorporate this rapidly expanding facet of healthcare into their teaching.

Content for these cases is aligned with AAMC telemedicine competencies. Cases were authored and peer-reviewed by medical educator members of the Society for the Teaching of Family Medicine (STFM) and the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM).

Aquifer Telemedicine provides an efficient solution for covering telemedicine, saving faculty time by providing access to high-quality, ready-made course materials.

Course Structure

All Clinical Excellence Case Sets, including Aquifer Telemedicine, now include:

  • Principles module: covers key definitions, epidemiology, explanations of key principles and why they are important for patient care, and a harm statement that makes it explicit what harm can come to the patient if the principle is not incorporated into practice.
  • Application Cases: Brief, realistic case scenarios that focus on one area of a patient encounter, and are centered around asking students to make important clinical decisions. Content models evidence-based best practices and communication strategies, exploring the real-world impacts on care and potential harm. At the end of each case, a reflection question asks the students to consider key takeaways, implications for their future practice, or personal wellness. Each application case also includes self-assessment questions that extend the learning to other scenarios.

Curriculum Integration

Aquifer Telemedicine is designed for any level student in a medical school or health professions program. The course is an ideal assignment for students to complete as preparation for clinical experiences that include telemedicine. Cases also serve as valuable reference material for students to return to as they need to refresh their knowledge during clinical rotations.

Programs with a current Aquifer subscription will also have faculty and administrator access to an accompanying educator guide. Subscribers will also be able to view student progress reporting and combine the new cases with other Aquifer content in a custom course.

Case List

  • Case 1: Principles of Telemedicine
  • Case 2: Building a history
  • Case 3: Performing a physical exam
  • Case 4: Escalating care

Learn More

4 minute video

Learn how Aquifer Foundations of Telemedicine—available free of charge—can benefit students and faculty in your program from course editor Amit Pahwa, MD.

Podcast

Integrating Telemedicine Into Medical Education

Guest: Amit Pahwa, MD, Director, Internal Medicine Sub-Internship, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Associate Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Editor-in-Chief, Aquifer Foundations of Telemedicine

In this episode, Dr. Amit Pahwa discusses the development of Aquifer’s new Foundations of Telemedicine course, which is freely available to all teachers and students. Dr. Pahwa talks about the genesis of the courses, how to integrate the courses into your curriculum, how the cases fit different needs of students, and how faculty members can use the cases in their instruction. Due to the rise in the use of telemedicine across all disciplines, these courses are of great importance to all medical professions students. The cases align with the AAMC’s Competencies for Telemedicine.

Full show notes can be found here.

Aquifer Social Determinants of Health

Aquifer Culture in Health Care
Aquifer Culture in Health Care

Aquifer Social Determinants of Health provides foundational knowledge and a framework for building skills that minimize the effects of social determinants of health (SDOH) on health outcomes.

Overview

Aquifer Social Determinants of Health builds a foundational understanding of social determinants of health and teaches evidence-based strategies to help improve health outcomes and equity for patients. By exploring SDOH in the context of a virtual patient case, learners have the opportunity to work through a realistic patient interaction, reflecting on their own implicit biases and cultural awareness and developing communication and clinical skills that identify underlying issues and provide patient-centered care.

Aquifer Social Determinants of Health is part of Aquifer’s Clinical Excellence Case Set, which includes 52 cases covering Palliative Care, Trauma Informed Care, Diagnostic Excellence, High Value Care, Social Determinants of Health, and Telemedine.

What are Social Determinants of Health?

Social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power, and resources at global, national, and local levels. Social determinants of health are a significant cause of health inequities – avoidable and unjust differences in health status seen within and between populations.

Just in Time Coverage of Social Determinants of Health Embedded in Select Courses

In addition to the stand-alone cases on Social Determinants of Health included as part of this Clinical Excellence Case Set, select core cases in Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, Neurology, and Radiology now have brief teaching on Social Determinants of Health embedded right into the case in the form of a clinical decision making question.

Together the just-in-time curricular threads combined with the deeper principles and application cases provide a strong foundation in Social Determinants of Health across the curriculum without adding faculty time. Learn more.

Key Features

  • Part of Aquifer’s Clinical Excellence Case Set, included with Curricular Partner subscriptions and available by subscription to Limited Subscribers
  • Case content focused on learning fundamental communication skills and systems knowledge key to providing care that maximizes health equity
  • A combination of cases, readings, and tools to help students translate skills to clinical practice
  • Ready-made cases to support self-directed learning, appropriate to supplement pre-clinical or clinical learning
  • Cases take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.
  • Appropriate to support pre-clinical or clinical learning.
  • Can be combined with other cases in a custom course to meet the needs of your specific curriculum.

Course Content

The overview and resources module provides key foundational learning on SDOH, with definitions, developing an understanding of how cultural beliefs and community culture affect health outcomes, and strategies for improving clinician-patient interactions.

The two virtual patient cases provide an opportunity for students to learn in the context of a realistic patient scenario, working to develop their own cultural awareness, interpersonal skills, and professionalism. Learners are able to practice the application of the information in a safe space, working through patient and family interactions, and practicing using the tools when caring for a patient.

While the patients are children in these cases, the learning objectives are applicable to patients of all ages.

Course Structure

All Clinical Excellence Case Sets, including Social Determinants of Health, now include:

  • Principles module: covers key definitions, epidemiology, explanations of key principles and why they are important for patient care, and a harm statement that makes it explicit what harm can come to the patient if the principle is not incorporated into practice.
  • Application Cases: Brief, realistic case scenarios that focus on one area of a patient encounter, and are centered around asking students to make important clinical decisions. Content models evidence-based best practices and communication strategies, exploring the real-world impacts on care and potential harm. At the end of each case, a reflection question asks the students to consider key takeaways, implications for their future practice, or personal wellness. Each application case also includes self-assessment questions that extend the learning to other scenarios.

Curriculum Integration

Aquifer Social Determinants of Health is designed for any level student in a medical school or health professions program. The course is an ideal assignment for students to complete as preparation for clinical experiences that include telemedicine. Cases also serve as valuable reference material for students to return to as they need to refresh their knowledge during clinical rotations.

Programs with a current Aquifer subscription will also have faculty and administrator access to an accompanying educator guide. Subscribers will also be able to view student progress reporting and combine the new cases with other Aquifer content in a custom course.

Case List

  • Case 1: Principles of social determinants of health
  • Case 2: 2-year-old with fever and headache
  • Case 3: 2-year-old with pneumonia and probable empyema

Learn More

3 Minute Video

Learn how Aquifer Social Determinants of Health—available free of charge—can benefit students and faculty in your program from Aquifer’s Chief Academic Officer Sherilyn Smith, MD.

Listen to the Aquifer Educator Connection Podcast with Regina Welkie, MSPAS, PA-C and Emily McSparin, MPA, PA-C, of DeSales Univeristy Physician Assistant Program, as they discuss how they were able to successfully integrate SDOH into a clinical curriculum by incorporating Aquifer cases into a journal club format. The Aquifer cases give students a shared experience and provide a springboard for a broader small group discussion about SDOH concepts they have experienced during clinical rotations. This approach resulted in deep, authentic conversations between students and faculty around the real impacts of SDOH on patient care.

Blog:

What Students are Saying: Social Determinants of Health Cases

Aquifer’s Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) cases focus on helping students improve health outcomes and equity for patients through realistic patient interactions, encouraging students to reflect on their own implicit biases and cultural awareness. These cases are intended to provide foundational knowledge for students, and foster discussion on this essential topic in classroom settings. By developing communication and clinical skills, students can identify underlying issues and provide patient-centered care.

Since the cases launched in July, we’ve had many positive reviews from students through our Student Advisory Group and five-star case rating comments, such as:

“The cases shed light on a really important, sometimes overlooked issue and explained it clearly in a situation that could very well be encountered in real life. This case especially explained what our role as med students is when higher-up professionals do not act in a culturally appropriate manner.” 

KEEP READING

Aquifer Diagnostic Excellence

Aquifer Diagnostic Excellence
Aquifer Diagnostic Excellence
In collaboration with: Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine
SIMD-type-Stackedc-6_6_16-300x145

Overview

The introductory principles module and six virtual patient cases in Aquifer Diagnostic Excellence introduce students to the cognitive processes and system-related issues that can lead to errors.

Diagnostic accuracy is the foundation of safe, effective medicine—yet 15% of inpatient cases involve some degree of diagnostic error. Aquifer Diagnostic Excellence introduces students to the cognitive processes and system-related issues that can lead to errors.

Aquifer Diagnostic Excellence is part of Aquifer’s Clinical Excellence Case Set, which includes 52 cases covering Palliative Care, Trauma Informed Care, Diagnostic Excellence, High Value Care, Social Determinants of Health, and Telemedine.

Medical error is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., causing at least 250,000 deaths every year. Diagnostic error represents anywhere from 40,000 to 80,000 of those deaths, making it the sixth leading cause of death.

Just in Time Coverage of Diagnostic Excellence Embedded in Select Courses

In addition to the stand-alone cases on Diagnostic Excellence included as part of this Clinical Excellence Case Set, select core cases in Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, Neurology, and Radiology now have brief teaching on Diagnostic Excellence embedded right into the case in the form of a clinical decision making question.

Together the just-in-time curricular threads combined with the deeper principles and application cases provide a strong foundation in Diagnostic Excellence across the curriculum without adding faculty time. Learn more…

Key Features

  • Part of Aquifer’s Clinical Excellence Case Set, included with Curricular Partner subscriptions and available by subscription to Limited Subscribers
  • Created for educators, by educators, in collaboration with the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine
  • Ready-made cases to support self-directed learning, appropriate to supplement pre-clinical or clinical learning
  • Cases take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.
  • Appropriate to support pre-clinical or clinical learning.
  • Can be combined with other cases in a custom course to meet the needs of your specific curriculum.

Course Content

Cases include foundational content about diagnosis, contributing factors, and strategies to avoid errors. Causes and consequences of diagnostic errors for patients, families, and providers are discussed in detail and students are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences. Aquifer Diagnostic Excellence provides tools to help students mitigate diagnostic error.

This cross-disciplinary course covers a range of topics, including internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, psychiatry, family medicine, and pediatrics.

Course Structure

All Clinical Excellence Case Sets, including Diagnostic Excellence, now include:

  • Principles module: covers key definitions, epidemiology, explanations of key principles and why they are important for patient care, and a harm statement that makes it explicit what harm can come to the patient if the principle is not incorporated into practice.
  • Application Cases: Brief, realistic case scenarios that focus on one area of a patient encounter, and are centered around asking students to make important clinical decisions. Content models evidence-based best practices and communication strategies, exploring the real-world impacts on care and potential harm. At the end of each case, a reflection question asks the students to consider key takeaways, implications for their future practice, or personal wellness. Each application case also includes self-assessment questions that extend the learning to other scenarios.

Curriculum Integration

Aquifer Diagnostic Excellence is designed for any level student in a medical school or health professions program. The course is an ideal assignment for students to complete as preparation for clinical experiences that include telemedicine. Cases also serve as valuable reference material for students to return to as they need to refresh their knowledge during clinical rotations.

Programs with a current Aquifer subscription will also have faculty and administrator access to an accompanying educator guide. Subscribers will also be able to view student progress reporting and combine the new cases with other Aquifer content in a custom course.

Case List

  • Diagnostic Excellence 01: Principles of diagnostic excellence
  • Diagnostic Excellence 02: 35-year-old male with abdominal pain
  • Diagnostic Excellence 03: 16-year-old female with pelvic pain
  • Diagnostic Excellence 04: 10-year-old male with chronic abdominal pain
  • Diagnostic Excellence 05: 84-year-old female with sepsis
  • Diagnostic Excellence 06: 12-day-old male infant with bloody stool
  • Diagnostic Excellence 07: Two females with iron-deficiency anemia

From Our Cases

Educator Guide & Classroom Activities Available

Course Overview – Integration Strategies – Active Learning Classroom Strategies – Case Details

The Educators Guide—available to institutional subscribers—provides a quick reference guide for all cases and resources included with Aquifer Diagnostic Excellence. Integration strategies and suggestions for custom courses are also included, making it easy to include this key topic in a variety of rotations and courses. The Educator Guide provides a wealth of valuable, engaging Active Learning Classroom Strategies ready to use in your teaching.

The Educator Guide and individual activity worksheets are available in the Educator Resources section of your Aquifer account. Learn more…

Learn More

Learn how Aquifer Diagnostic Excellence can benefit students and faculty in your program:

Testimonials

“My second-year medical students valued learning about diagnostic errors in an interactive manner and appreciated being able to practice clinical reasoning while learning about patient safety.”

Laurie Broutman, MD, FACP Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science

“In our first year using Aquifer Diagnostic Excellence, we noticed that students started talking about types of errors during their clinical presentations. Clearly, it was sinking in! For me, the most rewarding part was seeing a student take what they learned from the course and create a presentation about a clinical case they observed which had a medical error. The presentation included a discussion about steps to minimize errors in the future, such as better hand-offs, clearer documentation, and avoiding diagnostic momentum.”

Darin Brink, MD University of Minnesota Medical School

Aquifer Diagnostic Excellence Course Board

Aquifer Trauma-Informed Care

Overview

11 Trauma-Informed Care virtual patient cases demonstrate the effects of trauma on physical and mental health and ways that clinicians can provide appropriate care to trauma survivors.

Trauma-Informed Care provides a training tool for a broad range of healthcare providers and their staff to learn about the prevalence and impact of trauma and how to integrate the principles of trauma-informed care into clinical practice. By understanding the behavioral, neurological, and health effects of trauma and learning specific communication skills, clinicians can improve their relationships with patients, better engage patients in all aspects of their care, and potentially reduce the risk of their own professional stress and burnout.

Aquifer Trauma-Informed Care is part of Aquifer’s Clinical Excellence Case Set, which includes 52 cases covering Palliative Care, Trauma Informed Care, Diagnostic Excellence, High Value Care, Social Determinants of Health, and telemedicine.

70% of adults in the US have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives. That’s 223.4 million people.
– The National Council for Behavioral Health

What is Trauma-Informed Care?

Trauma-informed care recognizes the signs, symptoms, and risks of trauma to better support the health needs of patients who have experienced traumatic events. It is an outgrowth of abundant and definitive research findings, such as the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, which demonstrates that exposure to traumatic events is highly prevalent in our society.

Recognizing this relationship between adversity, health, and well-being, Trauma-Informed Care takes the universal precaution approach, which is to assume everyone has experienced some form of trauma, which is essential, given that most patients do not disclose their history of trauma, and likely may not even be aware of the impact it has had on them.

Just in Time Coverage of Trauma-Informed Care Embedded in Select Courses

In addition to the stand-alone cases on Trauma-Informed Care included as part of this Clinical Excellence Case Set, select core cases in Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, Neurology, and Radiology now have brief teaching on Trauma-Informed Care embedded right into the case in the form of a clinical decision making question.

Together the just-in-time curricular threads combined with the deeper principles and application cases provide a strong foundation in Trauma-Informed Care across the curriculum without adding faculty time. Learn more…

Key Features

  • Part of Aquifer’s Clinical Excellence Case Set, included with Curricular Partner subscriptions and available by subscription to Limited Subscribers
  • Cases focus on the impact of trauma and how healthcare practitioners can provide appropriate care for diverse populations
  • Ready-made cases to support self-directed learning, appropriate to supplement pre-clinical or clinical learning
  • Cases take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.
  • Appropriate to support pre-clinical or clinical learning.
  • Can be combined with other cases in a custom course to meet the needs of your specific curriculum.

Course Content

Virtual patient case scenarios address a range of core competencies and critical learning objectives, including the prevalence and health effects of trauma, the principles of trauma-informed care, the neurobiology of trauma, clinical management of persons who have experienced traumatic events, and interprofessional collaboration methods for working with trauma-affected patients. The types of patients cared for in the cases span the age spectrum and are seen primarily in the outpatient setting or in the emergency department.

The cases illustrate how trauma-informed care can improve patient-provider rapport, increase patient engagement in preventive care, and facilitate integrated, patient-centered treatment plans.

Course Structure

All Clinical Excellence Case Sets, including Aquifer Trauma-Informed Care, now include:

  • Principles module: covers key definitions, epidemiology, explanations of key principles and why they are important for patient care, and a harm statement that makes it explicit what harm can come to the patient if the principle is not incorporated into practice.
  • Application Cases: Brief, realistic case scenarios that focus on one area of a patient encounter, and are centered around asking students to make important clinical decisions. Content models evidence-based best practices and communication strategies, exploring the real-world impacts on care and potential harm. At the end of each case, a reflection question asks the students to consider key takeaways, implications for their future practice, or personal wellness. Each application case also includes self-assessment questions that extend the learning to other scenarios.

Curriculum Integration

Aquifer Trauma-Informed Care is designed for any level student in a medical school or health professions program. The course is an ideal assignment for students to complete as preparation for clinical experiences that include telemedicine. Cases also serve as valuable reference material for students to return to as they need to refresh their knowledge during clinical rotations.

Programs with a current Aquifer subscription will also have faculty and administrator access to an accompanying educator guide. Subscribers will also be able to view student progress reporting and combine the new cases with other Aquifer content in a custom course.

Case List

Trauma-Informed Care 01: Principles of trauma-informed care
Trauma-Informed Care 02: 45-year-old woman with diabetes experiencing stress
Trauma-Informed Care 03: 33-year-old female with insomnia
Trauma-Informed Care 04: 50-year-old female with stress and noncardiac chest pain
Trauma-Informed Care 05: 8-year-old male with asthma
Trauma-Informed Care 06: 48-year-old female coping with HIV
Trauma-Informed Care 07: 58-year-old female veteran with chronic pain
Trauma-Informed Care 08: 58-year-old male with gastrointestinal symptoms
Trauma-Informed Care 09: A rape exam in the emergency department
Trauma-Informed Care 10: Physician with a trauma history
Trauma-Informed Care 11: 78-year old male wellness visit
Trauma-Informed Care 12: 28-year-old pregnant woman with a history of witnessing violence

Aquifer High Value Care

Aquifer High Value Care
In collaboration with: American College of Physicians &
Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine
american-college-of-physicians-crop

Overview

The 12 cross-disciplinary virtual patient cases and introductory principles module in the High Value Care course explore the fundamentals of providing value in health care, adopted from the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine’s (AAIM) High Value Care Resident curriculum.

Aquifer High Value Care teaches students how their decisions about diagnostic testing, care management, and other interventions affect the costs and efficacy of care. Including this curriculum in every healthcare professional’s education is a step toward making high value care a reality in clinical practice.

Aquifer High Value Care is part of Aquifer’s Clinical Excellence Case Set, which includes 52 cases covering Palliative Care, Trauma Informed Care, Diagnostic Excellence, High Value Care, Social Determinants of Health, and Telemedine.

Just in Time Coverage of High Value Care Embedded in Select Courses

In addition to the stand-alone cases on High Value Care included as part of this Clinical Excellence Case Set, select core cases in Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, Neurology, and Radiology now have brief teaching on High Value Care embedded right into the case in the form of a clinical decision making question.

Together the just-in-time curricular threads combined with the deeper principles and application cases provide a strong foundation in High Value Care across the curriculum without adding faculty time. Learn more.

Key Features

  • Part of Aquifer’s Clinical Excellence Case Set, included with Curricular Partner subscriptions and available by subscription to Limited Subscribers
  • Created for educators, by educators, from the ACP-AAIM’s High Value Care Resident Curriculum
  • Ready-made cases to support self-directed learning, appropriate to supplement pre-clinical or clinical learning
  • Cases take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.
  • Appropriate to support pre-clinical or clinical learning.
  • Can be combined with other cases in a custom course to meet the needs of your specific curriculum.

Course Content

Aquifer High Value Care consists of innovative, cross-discipline, case-based modules that begin teaching the fundamentals of value in health care. The modules include short interactive virtual patient cases, brief instructional videos, key teaching points, and embedded links so that students can apply principles from the HVC modules to other cases. Topics include: making your diagnostic testing count, adult preventative care, insurance, statistics and clinical decision making, and more.

Course Structure

All Clinical Excellence Case Sets, including High Value Care, now include:

  • Principles module: covers key definitions, epidemiology, explanations of key principles and why they are important for patient care, and a harm statement that makes it explicit what harm can come to the patient if the principle is not incorporated into practice.
  • Application Cases: Brief, realistic case scenarios that focus on one area of a patient encounter, and are centered around asking students to make important clinical decisions. Content models evidence-based best practices and communication strategies, exploring the real-world impacts on care and potential harm. At the end of each case, a reflection question asks the students to consider key takeaways, implications for their future practice, or personal wellness. Each application case also includes self-assessment questions that extend the learning to other scenarios.

Curriculum Integration

Aquifer High Value Care is designed for any level student in a medical school or health professions program. The course is an ideal assignment for students to complete as preparation for clinical experiences that include telemedicine. Cases also serve as valuable reference material for students to return to as they need to refresh their knowledge during clinical rotations.

Programs with a current Aquifer subscription will also have faculty and administrator access to an accompanying educator guide. Subscribers will also be able to view student progress reporting and combine the new cases with other Aquifer content in a custom course.

Case List

  • High Value Care 01: Principles of high value care
  • High Value Care 02: 25-year-old female – Making diagnostic testing count
  • High Value Care 03: 65-year-old female – Adult preventive care and value
  • High Value Care 04: 80-year-old female – Medications and value
  • High Value Care 05: 78-year-old female – High value care in the inpatient setting
  • High Value Care 06: 65-year-old male – Paying for value: Insurance Part 1
  • High Value Care 07: 7-year-old female – Rooting out waste
  • High Value Care 08: 5-month-old female and 4-year old female – Value of vaccines
  • High Value Care 09: 66-year-old female – Redefining value at end of life
  • High Value Care 10: 16-year-old female – Statistics and clinical decision making
  • High Value Care 11: 17-year-old female – High value care reproductive health care
  • High Value Care 12: 17-year-old female – Paying for value: Insurance Part 2
  • High Value Care 13: 45-year-old male – The importance of clinical reasoning

From Our Cases

Educator Guide Available

Course Overview – Integration Strategies – Real World Application Activities – Case Details

The Educators Guide—available to institutional subscribers—provides a quick reference guide for all cases and resources included with Aquifer High Value Care. Integration strategies and suggestions for custom courses are also included, making it easy to include this key topic in a variety of rotations and courses. The Educator Guide provides a wealth of valuable, engaging Real World Application Activities ready to use in your teaching.

The Educator Guide and individual Real World Application Activities are available in the Educator Resources section of your Aquifer account. Learn more…

User Story Video

Learn how Aquifer High Value Care—available free of charge—can benefit students and faculty in your program:

Testimonial

“Aquifer High Value Care was an incredibly helpful resource. High Value Care is introduced in the first and second years of medical school only as a concept. I completed the first Aquifer High Value Care case and I was hooked. The cases are built very well, and I was able to learn efficiently. I was impressed with the content and the course’s ability to bring together information that would have taken me days to compile. The hyperlinks to online resources were invaluable.”

  Third-Year Medical Student

Aquifer High Value Care Course Board

Aquifer Medical Home

Aquifer Medical Home
In collaboration with:

Aquifer Medical Home teaches complex topics that are critical to the effective delivery of care within the medical home model.

Overview

The American Academy of Pediatrics defines medical home as “primary care that is accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family-centered, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective.” Aquifer Medical Home encompasses in-depth teaching on interpersonal skills and communication, systems-based practice, professionalism, and the management of chronic illness.

Key Features

  • Created for educators, by educators, to encompass the nationally accepted medical home curricula
  • Available free through June 30, 2023
  • In-depth focus on interpersonal skills, communication, systems-based practice, professionalism, and the management of chronic illness
  • A combination of cases, readings, and tools help students become familiar with these key concepts and translate their acquired skills to clinical practice
  • Proven pedagogy that standardizes experiences—overcoming geography, seasonality, and accessibility
  • Evidence-based, peer-reviewed, and continuously updated content
  • A wealth of source material, embedded assessment questions, and full references in each case
  • Delivered via the Aqueduct teaching and learning platform, which includes user management tools, easy reporting on student progress and course usage, plus tools for creating custom courses to match a specific curriculum

Course Content

The cases in the Medical Home course provide opportunities for students to focus on issues of interpersonal skills, communication, systems-based practice, and professionalism in the context of providing care for children with complex medical problems. Students will learn how to apply the information to patient and family interactions, and to practice using the tools when caring for a patient.

Curriculum Integration

While Aquifer Medical Home is designed to be effective for independent study, students may benefit from a combination of approaches to instruction. Educators are linking the course to other learning opportunities within the clinical curriculum, such as using cases as a common clinical encounter for discussion or creating assignments around the Questions for Further Reflection at the end of each case. While the cases focus on pediatric examples, the learning is extensible to other patient populations.

Case List

Medical Home 01: 16-year-old-female with status asthmaticus

Medical Home 02: 11-year-old-female with meningomyelocele

Medical Home 03: 2-year-old male with language delay

Medical Home 04: Newborn male with multiple congenital anomalies

Medical Home Lead

At the center of the medical home is the family-centered partnership between the provider, the patient, and the patient’s family or primary caregivers. Achieving this partnership requires thinking beyond the patient’s medical problems.

Aquifer Oral Presentation Skills

Aquifer Oral Presentation Skills

Aquifer Oral Presentation Skills contains materials and exercises designed to develop excellent oral presentation skills, a critical communication tool for all health care providers. It is available for free for all teachers and learners. 

Overview

The development of outstanding oral presentation skills is one of the most important aspects of clinical training. Communication skills are integral to providing quality patient care. Furthermore, a good oral case presentation goes beyond simple transmission of information. It should provide the audience with insight into the presenter’s thought process and, indirectly, skill as a clinician. This course will discuss the components of an excellent oral presentation, with opportunities to practice each.

Modules Proven to be as Effective as In-person Teaching

The study published by Colin M. Sox, MD, MS, “Efficacy of a Web-Based Oral Case Presentation Instructional Module: Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial”, in the January 2018 issue of Academic Pediatrics, reveals that the quality of oral presentations delivered by students who completed the Aquifer course did not differ from those who participated in faculty-led feedback sessions. Learn more…

Building Key Communication Skills

Students often struggle with expectations regarding oral case presentations. In one study comparing the perceived expectations of third-year medical students and their preceptors, students “described and conducted the presentation as a rule-based, data-storage activity governed by order and structure”. Preceptors, on the other hand, viewed the presentation as a “flexible means of communication and a method for constructing the details of a case into a diagnostic or therapeutic plan.” [Haber RJ, Lingard LA. J Gen Int Med. 2001; 16(5):308]

Therefore, while certain rules are universal, the definition of a “good” oral presentation will depend on the situation. The complete oral presentation that you might give to a teaching attending in a classroom setting may not be very different from your written presentation, which details everything you know about your patient. Oral presentations on work rounds will be considerably shorter, however. Inpatient presentations may differ in style from those in the outpatient setting.

This course teaches the focused, problem-based inpatient case presentation given on work rounds, where a premium is placed on brevity and clinical decision-making.

Course Content & Module List

Aquifer Oral Presentation Skills includes several modules that provide a clear course to building key oral communication skills.

  • Oral Presentation Skills 01: Introduction
    The primer reviews the organization of an oral presentation, particularly those in the inpatient setting, with examples offered for clarification of each section. The examples introduce clinical reasoning concepts which should ultimately guide the presentation.
  • Oral Presentation Skills 02: What is Pertinent
    This exercise involves identifying pertinent information based on varying chief complaints for both initial presentations and for follow-up progress reports.
  • Oral Presentation Skills 03: Assessment and Plan Exercise
    This exercise involves critiquing three audiotaped versions of an assessment and plan for the case. These examples include both model behavior and common mistakes.
  • Oral Presentation Skills 04: 4-month-old male with trouble breathing
    This virtual patient case presents Teddy, a four-month old with trouble breathing. Students are asked to build an oral presentation step by step as they work through the case through a combination of data-gathering, organizational and clinical reasoning exercises.

WISE-OnCall

NYU Grossman WISE-OnCall Logo

In collaboration with:

NYU Grossman School of Medicine

A collection of 12 multimedia modules designed to educate learners (medical students, PA students, nursing students) about potential medical issues they may encounter while they are on call.

Created by the WISE Program at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Distributed by Aquifer on behalf of the WISE Program at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Available through an independent learning platform from your Aquifer account.

Overview

WISE-OnCall helps healthcare learners prepare for their transition to residency and practice through a symptom-based review of conditions that they will likely encounter while on call.

The modules provide a common, pre-residency learning experience to students with different undergraduate educational experiences, serving as a base line for forming and building a clinical framework and as a “refresher” to fill gaps in students’ clinical knowledge as they transition to residency and practice.

The offering currently includes 12 modules, each focusing on a particular symptom or clinical skill. Modules incorporate a didactic review of key concepts and causes associated with the presenting symptoms, simulated cases which model a residents response to on-call scenarios, case-based practice questions which allow the student to test their knowledge, and symptom checklists to help students focus on the larger constellation of symptoms when prioritizing their differential. The modules also stress the importance of and model appropriate interprofessional communication.

Key Features

  • Expository review of topic
  • Simulated cases with embedded topic-based questions
  • Checklists based on symptoms and situations
  • Case-based practice questions

Course Coverage

  • Each symptom-based module includes an introduction, a review of causes, a sample patient case, practice questions, and references
  • The selection of module topics is informed by the Core Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) outlined by the Association of American Medical Colleges
  • Modules currently cover many of the conditions requiring urgent or emergent care as specified in EPA 10
  • Reviews key considerations associated with general clinical activities such as documenting clinical encounters (EPA 5)

Curriculum Integration

WISE-OnCall has largely been targeted at 4th-year medical students’ preparation for and transition to residency. To that end, the offering’s design has been informed by the AAMC’s Core Entrustable Professional Activities.

Modules have been integrated into advanced clerkships at some institutions. Others have incorporated the modules into focused capstone or transition to residency courses. The modules could be integrated in the traditional third-year clerkships to introduce or review clinical reasoning. They have also been blended with preclinical coursework to demonstrating the practical clinical importance of concepts in the basic sciences.

In post-transition residency education, WISE-OnCall may be used as a baseline, self-directed learning activity to address the variability in incoming students’ educational experiences and increase their preparation for managing in-patient clinical situations.

An active research program at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine has been investigating the design and blending of first-person, “on-call” simulations with the self-directed WISE-OnCall modules to create a unified, pre-residency learning experience.

Case List

Ten of the modules focus on high-risk symptoms. Common causes are reviewed and a video case dramatization follows. The remaining two modules cover the clinical activities of Documentation and Certifying a Death.

Cases:

Abdominal Pain
Acute Chest Pain
Acute Pain Management
Certifying a Death
Documentation for Patient Safety
Dyspnea
Fever and Sepsis
Hypertension
Hypotension
Loss of Consciousness
Lower Extremity Pain
Oliguria

Learn More

Listen to the Aquifer Educator Connection Podcast with Jeff Manko, MD, Emergency Medicine Residency Program Director, NYU/Bellevue Medical Center, Director of GME Professional Development, co-Director of the WISE Programs, as he discusses how NYU Grossman School of Medicine pairs WISE-OnCall modules with their own simulation to onboard new residents and why this is a useful model for medical and health professions programs. He also explains how WISE-OnCall modules, whose development was informed by the AAMC’s EPAs, can be used to help learners diagnose and manage clinical situations they are likely to encounter on clinical clerkships, advanced sub-internships, and during the transition to residency or practice.

From the Modules