I’ve had a string of bad health problems in the past year. Last fall, I woke up one morning covered head to toe in hives. Last April, I was sick for several weeks and couldn’t figure out why. I was eventually diagnosed with mono. Then, only a few weeks after I’d recovered, I went through the worst allergy cycle of my life, after which I found out I’m terribly allergic to all grasses.

Each of those cases forced me to miss class, as it was my responsibility to trek to the Boynton Health Services clinic, have myself evaluated and obtain a doctor’s note for each day I had to miss class. Thanks to recent innovations in medical diagnosis, Boynton has another option that it could explore when diagnosing student illnesses: establishing an online clinic.

Although uncommon, this concept is not altogether unheard of. In fact, two different online clinics, Zipnosis and Virtuwell, operate in Minnesota alone. Both diagnose and prescribe medication for more than 50 common conditions, from seasonal allergies to gonorrhea.

That said, the thought of the University of Minnesota’s clinic treating patients online is slightly unnerving. As far as colleges I know of, none currently offer such a service. Still, our University could be on the forefront if it started an online clinic.

The online model has worked brilliantly for patients on Virtuwell and Zipnosis, and both services have been nominated for Minnesota Leaders in Health Care Awards in 2014. Both are finalists in the category for best Software/Web Application award. Virtuwell’s care delivery manager Gwen Verchota is a finalist for the Health Care Practitioner award.

In a world becoming more Internet-accessible by the day, establishing an online clinic would be an opportunity for the University to lead in a new form of health care and to better serve the community.