Treating symptoms of aching, ailing bodies can be as easy as conducting a Google search.

You can find how fellow sufferers are suppressing coughs or treating sore throats, but usually, reliable medical advice is hard to find on the Internet.

For the most part, doctors’ offices are open Monday through Friday until 5 p.m. Of course, classes and extracurricular activities fall on these days and between these hours as well.

What are students to do during flu season when they forget to bring the doctor’s phone number before leaving home? Will busy student schedules force them to turn to a symptom search on Google? Earlier this year, Hall Health patients were given a possible solution: UW Neighborhood eCare, an online system that allows patients access to medical information via the Internet.

Patients using eCare can schedule their own appointments, view lab results, message doctors and request refills for prescriptions — all online.

It’s much more convenient for students to be able to go online at 11 p.m. and take care of everything, said Karen Beck, program operations specialist at Hall Health.

About a year of planning went into creating the eCare system and it was introduced at the beginning of this school year.

A completely secure server was created for the system.

“We don’t actually send any medical information over the Internet,” said Jane Fellner, associate director for clinical information systems at Hall Health. “All communication is within the secure server, to which you get access with a secure user name and password.”

The system ensures that only the patient has access to personal information, and that the patient can only access his or her information.

The eCare system has been incorporated as a part of the medical records, Fellner said.

Because of this, the system has all of the necessary protections to make sure all patient information is kept secure.

An e-mail notification is sent to patients letting them know that new information is available to them, and they then can log onto the secure server and view the information there.

Patients also have access to useful general medical information, tools and resources once logged into the Web site, Fellner said.

There was some initial fear that workload would be doubled for those in the medical offices, Beck said, but that hasn’t been the case.

Everyone is still in the process of getting used to the system, but Hall Health hasn’t received much negative feedback.

“People are glad because it’s just so convenient,” Beck said.

UW Neighborhood eCare can also increase communication between patients and their providers. Patients can expect a response from their clinical team within 48 hours, and the system provides greater security than e-mail. Prescription refill requests through the site are processed in two days.

Any person age 18 or older who is a patient within the UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics or at Hall Health can sign up for the service.

There are stations within Hall Health where students can sign up and gain an access code, and the code can also be requested online to be sent through the mail.

More than 4,000 students have begun the sign-up process for the service. Of those, about half have actually completed the sign up and logged on to access their information.

However, 4,000 is a small number compared to the 73 percent of enrolled students who are patients at Hall Health.

Beck said that if more patients used eCare, certain procedures, such as scheduling appointments and refilling prescriptions, would become much smoother.

As for the future of eCare, Beck doesn’t see many changes coming soon.

Seattle’s Group Health Cooperative online health care system is eCare’s role model. The Group system launched in 2000 and has continued to grow and improve, said Mike Foley, a spokesperson for Group Health Cooperative.

Since 2000, Group Health has continued adding more pieces to the system.

Patients now have access to digital copies of their X-rays, they can fill out questionnaires concerning their health, and providers can give recommendations about areas of concern.

The newest addition is an alert system that notifies doctors if a patient has not been screened for a particular concern or has stopped renewing prescriptions.

Foley said Group Health’s model is the most advanced in the nation.

Many health systems wouldn’t be able to handle a system like this, Foley said.

“We are more concerned with communicating with you and making sure you’re staying healthy,” Foley said.

Healthy is very good for students, especially when healthy can be achieved between classes from a Blackberry.

[Reach reporter Shauna Nuckles at features@thedaily.washington.edu.]