"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
Aquifer is designed to help you build essential clinical knowledge and reasoning skills that prepare you for real-world patient care. As a student at an institution with an Aquifer subscription, you have access to our comprehensive suite of learning tools that complement your clinical rotations and classroom education.
Even if you’re not at an institution with an Aquifer subscription, you can still get an individual subscription to access all of our 250+ cases and illness scripts, PracticeSmart quizzes, and our customizable learning platform.
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 Provide You With:
Access to Patients & Key Conditions
Gain experience missed in clinic due to lack of patients, disruptions, or seasonality.
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 by Leading Institutions
All Aquifer content is written, peer-reviewed, and continuously updated by our consortium of 100+ distinguished health professions educators. Our virtual patient cases and assessment tools are used by:
U.S. allopathic medical schools
U.S. osteopathic medical schools
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 – Obstetrics and Gynecology – Pediatrics – Radiology
and Clinical Excellence Case Sets on key topics:
Diagnostic Excellence – High Value Care – Palliative Care – Social Determinants of Health – Telemedicine – Trauma Informed Care
Plus, a library of Integrated Illness Scripts links basic science causal mechanisms to key clinical knowledge to explain the “why” behind core conditions.
Self-Directed Learning Tools
Take control of your educational journey with Aquifer’s suite of assessment tools. These resources allow you to identify knowledge gaps, reinforce key concepts, and develop your clinical reasoning at your own pace—building the confidence and competence you’ll need in clinical settings:
Calibrate Assessments
Aquifer Calibrate is our formative assessment system designed to enhance knowledge and skill-building through test-enhanced learning and spaced repetition. While these are assigned to you from your institution, Calibrate assessments, along with feedback and reporting, help:
- Identify knowledge gaps to drive your self-directed learning
- Build higher-order thinking skills with targeted questions aligned to national curricula
- Direct you straight to the cases you need with options to add them to your “to-do” list
PracticeSmart Quizzes
PracticeSmart is more than just another question bank. The questions are the same ones that you will face during clinical rotations. PracticeSmart offers:
- Thousands of clinically-focused questions with answer explanations and certainty ratings to find true knowledge gaps
- A flexible, customizable quiz builder to fit individual learning needs
- Direct links back to case content for further study
Not at a Program with Aquifer Access?
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. You can get instant access to Aquifer’s trusted content with an individual subscription. For just $125, you get access to all of Aquifer’s 250+ cases and illness scripts as well as PracticeSmart quizzes and our customizable learning platform.
Why Students Love Aquifer
“The material is highly relevant to my clerkship and what I’m encountering on a day-to-day basis, reinforcing my clinical learning and providing excellent resources to share with other clinic providers. Questions at the end are also useful for checking that I successfully understood the learning objectives and retained new knowledge.”
– 3rd-year medical student
“Aquifer has really challenged me and improved my critical thinking and diagnostic reasoning.”
– Nurse practitioner student
“Aquifer does a great job of curating the most important concepts for us to learn and seamlessly weaving them into realistic cases. Before I saw patients on the wards, Aquifer’s virtual patients gave me enough clinical context to remember the highest yield points to present to my attending. This is the way to learn “bread-and-butter” medicine!”
– 3rd year Medical Student
“I really value how close to real life Aquifer is. It makes me feel like I’m on rotation!”
– PA Student
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 for 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.
Discuss cases to make connections
Plan to talk through cases with a friend or study group to maximize your learning if you aren’t covering them in class.
Use PracticeSmart quizzes
Identify and address your knowledge gaps by using the customizable quiz builder to kickstart your self-directed learning and be ready for rounds.
Our Proven Pedagogy
- Complete Encounters with Patients & Preceptors
- Realistic Clinical Experiences
- Written by Experts & Aligned with National Curricula
- Modeling Communication
- Embedded Self-Assessment Throughout Cases
- Just-In-Time Coverage of Clinical Excellence Topics
- Integration of Basic Science and Clinical Education
- Formative Assessment Tools build Self-Directed Learners
Complete Encounters with Patients & Preceptors
Aquifer cases walk students through all of the steps of a patient encounter.
Realistic Clinical Experiences
Cases include results of diagnostic testing, videos, audio, and images to provide a deep and realistic patient scenario.
Written by Experts & Aligned with National Curricula
Aquifer cases are written and maintained by the Aquifer Consortium of leading health professions educators, and developed to provide comprehensive coverage of national organization curriculum.
Modeling Communication
Each case includes detailed dialog that models effective communication with both patients and preceptors—an ideal way to prepare students for clinic.
Embedded Self-Assessment Throughout Cases
Cases include built-in questions for self-assessment with detailed answer explanations, opportunities for students to practice writing summary statements, and additional self-assessment questions at the end to reinforce key concepts and extend learning beyond a single scenario.
Just-In-Time Coverage of Clinical Excellence Topics
Brief, just-in-time coverage of Palliative Care, Trauma-Informed Care, Social Determinants of Health, High Value Care, Diagnostic Excellence and Telemedicine is included in select cases - a great way to ensure consistent coverage of these often orphaned topics without adding faculty time.
Integration of Basic Science and Clinical Education
40+ Integrated Illness Scripts are available on core conditions to promote cognitive integration and provide a framework for learners to link basic science and clinical knowledge.
Formative Assessment Tools build Self-Directed Learners
Calibrate formative assessments for Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Radiology drive self-directed learning in clinical students, helping them build higher order thinking and problem solving skills, and provides a common tool and objective data to align students and faculty and leverage mid-clerkship feedback.
Meet Our Student Advisory Group
We’re listening!
Aquifer’s Student Advisory Group provides ongoing feedback about our current learning tools and developing projects to inform future development and improvements.
