your-ideal-clinical-preceptor
"Aquifer is like having a clinical preceptor who has all the time in the day to sit with me and explain everything in detail, at any pace I request."

-MD Student

Building Clinical Reasoning Skills

Aquifer is committed to preparing students for clinical practice. Our rich case content focuses on teaching evidence-based clinical decision-making and developing the problem-solving skills vital to providing quality patient care.

Aquifer Cases Give You:

Access to Patients & Key Conditions

Gain experience missed in clinic due to lack of patients, disruptions, or seasonality.

Access to Patients

A Safe Space to Practice Clinical Decisions

Realistic, interactive patient scenarios allow students to deepen their understanding, check their knowledge, and develop diagnoses before they are at the bedside.

Deep Evidence-Based Content

Comprehensive coverage of core clinical concepts, written and peer-reviewed by expert medical educators.

trusted content

Aquifer’s Top Quality, Trusted Content is used in:

0
%
of U.S. allopathic medical schools
0
%
of U.S. osteopathic medical schools
0
PA programs
& a growing number of nurse practitioner programs, international medical schools, and residency programs. 

Expansive Content on Core Topics

Aquifer’s 250+ cases include content in core disciplines:
Family Medicine – Geriatrics – Internal Medicine – Neurology – Pediatrics – Radiology

and Clinical Excellence Case Sets on key topics:
Palliative Care – Trauma-Informed Care – High Value Care – Diagnostic Excellence – Telemedicine – Social Determinants of Health

Plus, a growing library of Integrated Illness Scripts that link basic science causal mechanisms to key clinical knowledge to explain the “why” behind core conditions.

Aquifer Culture in Health Care

Why Students Love Aquifer

138,247 students rated Aquifer 4.5/5 stars

Student Stories: How Aquifer Helps

Tips for Making the Most of Aquifer Cases

Think of each Aquifer case as a real patient

Consider cases the patients that you didn’t get to see or want to brush up on.

Plan enough time for a thorough review

Cases are deep and can take up to 45 minutes to complete.

Practice Your Skills

Embedded assessments and practice summary statements, with detailed answer explanations, provide valuable practice opportunities.

Don’t miss the Case Summaries and Extension Questions

At the end of each case you’ll find In-depth case summaries – perfect to save or print as a study guide – plus additional self-assessment questions to extend your learning.

Discussing cases makes connections

Plan to talk through cases with a friend or study group to maximize your learning if you aren’t covering them in class.

Our Proven Pedagogy

Complete Encounters with Patients & Preceptors

Aquifer cases walk students through all of the steps of a patient encounter.

Aquifer Case Patient Encounter Experience

Realistic Clinical Experiences

Cases include results of diagnostic testing, videos, audio, and images to provide a deep and realistic patient scenario.

Written by Experts & Aligned with National Curricula

Aquifer cases are written and maintained by the Aquifer Consortium of leading health professions educators, and developed to provide comprehensive coverage of national organization curriculum.

Modeling Communication

Each case includes detailed dialog that models effective communication with both patients and preceptors—an ideal way to prepare students for clinic.

Embedded Self-Assessment Throughout Cases

Cases include built-in questions for self-assessment with detailed answer explanations, opportunities for students to practice writing summary statements, and additional self-assessment questions at the end to reinforce key concepts and extend learning beyond a single scenario.

Just-In-Time Coverage of Clinical Excellence Topics

Brief, just-in-time coverage of Palliative Care, Trauma-Informed Care, Social Determinants of Health, High Value Care, Diagnostic Excellence and Telemedicine is included in select cases - a great way to ensure consistent coverage of these often orphaned topics without adding faculty time.

Integration of Basic Science and Clinical Education

40+ Integrated Illness Scripts are available on core conditions to promote cognitive integration and provide a framework for learners to link basic science and clinical knowledge.

Formative Assessment Tools build Self-Directed Learners

Calibrate formative assessments for Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Radiology drive self-directed learning in clinical students, helping them build higher order thinking and problem solving skills, and provides a common tool and objective data to align students and faculty and leverage mid-clerkship feedback.

Meet Our Student Advisory Groups

We’re listening!

Aquifer’s Student Advisory Groups provide ongoing feedback about our current learning tools and developing projects to inform future development and improvements.