You asked for it, so we listened! First Aid has now gone digital to support the medical students of today and evolve with the needs of future students. Like the books, we have involved medical students like you throughout our entire development process and built an integrated product that helps you build your foundational medical knowledge. Based on extensive research, we learned from students like you that, while they heavily rely on the First Aid books for USMLE prep, there were several key things they wanted from a digital First Aid experience:

• Smart search to access topics quickly.
• Built-in quizzing to ensure you know and understand the First Aid topics.
• Additional content to supplement the core First Aid book content.
• Highlighting and note-taking to allow you to isolate self-designated content and use it as a study resource.

Even though First Aid Forward has many more features, it was upon these four main ideas that the product was built.

First Aid Forward is different from the books because it incorporates new and expanded First Aid content to support your USMLE studies all in one place. You get the classic First Aid content along with Clinical Cases and Clinical Pattern Recognition content so you can clinically apply your learnings.

It will also be continuously updated throughout the year with new content and product features.

This is NOT a replacement for the book, you can use them side by side. It’s made to support how you like to study -- customizable and flexible.

Learn more about how to study with First Aid Forward on our How to Study page!

First Aid Forward quizzes are case-style ‘quick-hit’ questions. They are created to test your foundational knowledge of a particular topic to prepare you for the longer USMLE-style vignettes. Use these questions to assess your strengths and weaknesses in foundational concepts across subjects and organ systems. Your performance on these questions will not correlate to how you perform on USMLE vignette questions. 

We offer access to PayPal Pay in 4, which allows you to pay over 4 interest-free payments, and other payment options. 

Send us an email at firstaidforwardsupport@mheducation.com. 

AI Reader is a learning tool integrated into First Aid Forward Step 1 and Step 2 CK resources. It allows users to generate multiple-choice questions from highlighted text, tables, or sections, receive immediate feedback on answers, and save or export these questions into notes for later review. By fostering active engagement with trusted First Aid Forward content, AI Reader helps users retain information and deepen their understanding efficiently.

AI Reader is built using a large language model (LLM). This LLM is a private instance of OpenAI’s GPT-4o provided via Microsoft Azure AI. This model is given context for the specified First Aid Forward title (and only that title) using a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pattern, which indexes First Aid Forward’s content.  Learn more about the technology behind AI Reader and our approach to responsible AI implementation.

Yes, AI Reader may be disabled upon request for your institution. Prior to a trial or subscription, please inform your Account Manager that disabling AI features is an institutional policy requirement. If the trial or subscription has already begun, please reach out to your Account Manager or visit our First Aid Forward Support Page to contact us.