Aquifer News and Events

New Virtual Patient Encounters Support Skill Development

Written by Katie Hamon | Jan 15, 2026 9:58:54 PM

(Updated April 21, 2026)

Aquifer now has 16 Virtual Patient Encounters (VPEs) across seven clinical disciplines!


Students and educators can find these in the following cases:

  • Family Medicine 05: Amanda Waters - 30 - palpitations
  • *NEW* Family Medicine 23: Chantel Newman - mom to Althea - 5 - sore throat
  • *NEW* Geriatrics 03: Ada Street - 91 - urinary incontinence
  • Geriatrics 15: Frank Lee Aiken - 75 - abdominal pain
  • Geriatrics 16: Arthur Smitherman - 87 - low back pain
  • *NEW* Gynecology 02: Lori Johnson - 42 - abnormal uterine bleeding
  • Gynecology 03: Dolores Russell - 31 - chronic pelvic pain
  • *NEW* Internal Medicine 01: Steve Monson - 49 - chest pain
  • *NEW* Internal Medicine 09: Barbara Turner - 55 - upper abdominal pain and vomiting
  • Neurology 11: Anna Pine - 24 - headache
  • *NEW* Neurology 13: Miriam Salaah - 28 - dizziness
  • *NEW* Pediatrics 05: Betsy Pearce - 16 - health maintenance visit
  • Pediatrics 09: Jessica Morales - mom to Olivia - 2-week old - lethargy
  • Pediatrics 12: Mrs. Kelly - mom to Anna - 10-month old - cough
  • *NEW* Psychiatry 03: Kenny Johnson - 20 - increasingly erratic behavior
  • Psychiatry 05: Allison Killpatrick - 29 - unwanted intrusive thoughts

These VPEs allow students to practice asking questions and adjusting based on responses—thus developing the real-time communication skills they'll need with actual patients.


After the interview, students receive immediate, personalized feedback based on established competencies for effective interviewing. This creates the experience of having an expert preceptor beside each student. 


Over 15,000 conversations have been completed already, by more than 10,000 students, and these encounters have been met with strong positive feedback from students, as evidenced by their ratings and quotes such as: 

"I really enjoyed this and found it very helpful. I would love to use this for future practice and development of my interviewing skills."

"Really fun! Way more interactive and thought-invoking than a simple MC or open-ended question."

Learn more about how these were developed and why that process is important in our blog post, entitled "How Educator Expertise Shapes Aquifer's Virtual Patient Encounters."