Aquifer Geriatrics
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 can stand alone or serve to enrich an existing curriculum.
The 28 virtual patient cases in Aquifer Geriatrics provide the AGS National Online Curriculum for medical and health professions students.
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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.
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Key Features
- Created for educators, by educators, as the American Geriatrics Society national online curriculum for medical and health professions students
- Access to Aquifer Calibrate: Transformative Assessments for Clinical Learning Mastery, our innovative system for formative assessment, available with subscription
- 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
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Course Content
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.
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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.
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Case List
Geriatrics 01: 85-year-old using anticoagulants
Geriatrics 02: 85-year-old with hypoglycemia
Geriatrics 03: 91-year-old with urinary incontinence
Geriatrics 04: 85-year-old with dementia
Geriatrics 05: 79-year-old with agitation
Geriatrics 06: 85-year-old with delirium
Geriatrics 07: 78-year-old with depression
Geriatrics 08: 86-year-old and decisional capacity in the context of elder abuse
Geriatrics 09: 82-year-old and assessment of functional status and home safety
Geriatrics 10: 72-year-old with weight loss; addressing sexuality in older adults
Geriatrics 11: 75-year-old with neck pain (osteopathic approach)
Geriatrics 12: 78-year-old with recent falls
Geriatrics 13: 75-year-old and 80-year-old patients, prognosis and screening for older adults
Geriatrics 14: 88-year-old with dementia and feeding issues
Geriatrics 15: 75-year-old with abdominal pain
Geriatrics 16: 87-year-old with low back pain
Geriatrics 17: 86-year-old with nursing home-acquired pneumonia
Geriatrics 18: 83-year-old with urinary tract symptoms
Geriatrics 19: 70-year-old with urinary concerns
Geriatrics 20: 79-year-old with severe pain and low health literacy
Geriatrics 21: 70-year-old with symptomatic end-stage COPD: An Interprofessional Case
Geriatrics 22: 74-year-old and hazards of hospitalization: Geriatric patient safety in the acute care setting
Geriatrics 23: 70-year-old and hazards of hospitalization: Transitions of care and discharge planning for geriatric inpatients
Geriatrics 24: 78-year-old with pressure injuries
Geriatrics 25: 92-year-old and restraints
Geriatrics 26: 78-year-old and cultural humility in geriatric care
Geriatrics 27: Advance care planning
Geriatrics 28: Frailty in three patients
User Stories
Learn how Aquifer Geriatrics can benefit medical students, fellows and faculty in your program.
I like that these cases are real-life scenarios and very applicable to the patients I see in clinic with my mentors. I feel just by doing these cases in a few days, my experience in family medicine has improved by leaps and bounds and my mentors can see a marked improvement and change in me, even down to how I interact with patients and present myself. Thank you so much Aquifer, you're a lifesaver!
Publications
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American Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
“Updated Geriatrics Competencies for Graduating Medical Students: Training Physicians to Provide Age-Friendly Care” presents the updated competencies in geriatrics for graduating medical students, framed by the Geriatrics 5Ms (Mind, Mobility, Medications, Multicomplexity, and What Matters Most).
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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.
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Accompanying editorial, published in JAGS
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.
Aquifer Geriatrics Course Board
Amit Shah, MD
Course Board: Aquifer Geriatrics
Role: Editor-in-Chief
Former Roles: Case Author, Associate Editor
Cases Authored: Geriatrics 04: 85-year-old woman with dementia, Geriatrics 12: 78-year-old woman and falls, Geriatrics 15: 75-year-old man with abdominal pain, Geriatrics 17: 86-year-old woman with pneumonia
Institution: Mayo Clinic, Phoenix
Institutional Title: Assistant Professor
Institutional Role: Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs
Kathryn Denson, MD, MPH
Course Board: Aquifer Geriatrics
Role: Associate Editor and Assessment Lead
Former Role: Case Editor
Institution: Medical College of Wisconsin
Institutional Title: Professor
Angela Beckert, MD
Course Board: Aquifer Geriatrics
Role: Associate Editor and Curriculum Lead
Institution: Medical College of Wisconsin
Institutional Title: Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine
Institutional Role: Course Director, Geriatric Medicine M3 4 Week Elective, Dept. of Internal Medicine
Aruna Josyla, MD, MPH, CMD
Course Board: Aquifer Geriatrics
Role: Associate Editor and Assessment Lead
Institution: Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, Temple
Institutional Title: Staff Geriatrician
Institutional Role: Geriatric Fellowship Director
Mallory Brown, MD
Course Board: Aquifer Geriatrics
Role: Associate Editor
Institution: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Institutional Title: Family Medicine Residency Program Director, Family Medicine Faculty Development Fellowship Faculty
Kady Goldlist, MD
Course Board: Aquifer Geriatrics
Role: Associate Editor
Institution: Mount Sinai Hospital/University Health Network
Institutional Title: Lecturer, Clinician Teacher
Kanah May Lewallen, DNP, AGPCNP-BC, GNP-BC
Course Board: Aquifer Geriatrics
Role: Associate Editor
Institution: Vanderbilt University School of Nursing | Vanderbilt University
Institutional Title: Assistant Professor in Nursing, Assistant in Medicine
Institutional Role: GEC NPR Program Director
Jennifer Prochniewski, MS, MMS, CCC-SLP, PA-C, DFAAPA Physician Assistant NP PA
Course Board: Aquifer Geriatrics
Role: Associate Editor
Institution: Mayo Clinic
Institutional Title: Physician Assistant NP PA, Supervisor Community Internal Medicine
Institutional Role: Instructor in Medicine, Associate Co-Chair NP PAs, Mayo Clinical Department of Medicine
Erin Zahradnik, MD
Course Board: Aquifer Geriatrics
Role: Associate Editor, Case Editor (Former)
Cases Edited: Geriatrics Case 04 – 85-year-old female with dementia, Case 05 – 79-year old female with agitation, Case 07 – y8-year-old male with depression
Institution:University Chicago Medicine
Institutional Role: UChicago Faculty Physician, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry