Telemedicine beneficial for headache care during the pandemic

Telemedicine has facilitated care for many headache patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in high satisfaction rates and a desire to continue utilising telemedicine for future headache care. This was found in an online survey of the American Migraine Foundation, presented at the IHC 2021 meeting and recently published in Headache [1,2].

In March 2020, many healthcare institutions worldwide cancelled elective, non-urgent appointments and procedures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Telemedicine was quickly implemented and has now become essential because it minimises the geographic and physical barriers, preserves personal protective equipment, and prevents the spread of COVID-19. Dr Chia-Chun Chiang (Mayo Clinic, NY, USA) shared the results of an electronic questionnaire surveying patients’ experience of telemedicine use for headache care [1].

Of the >180,000 respondents, the vast majority (95.6%) had a previous self-reported headache diagnosis. Over half of participants (57.5%) reported that they had used telemedicine for headache care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among those who did not use telemedicine, this was most commonly due to no need for a visit (56.1%), not knowing telemedicine was an option (25.2%), or the patients wanted to, but telemedicine was not offered by their physician (12.9%).

Among users of telemedicine, 85.5% used it for follow up, and the remaining 14.5% used it for new visits. Most patients (92.6%) did not receive a new headache diagnosis through a telemedicine visit. Over half of patients (52.4%) were prescribed a new treatment through a telemedicine visit.

Concerning their experience of telemedicine for their headache disorder care and treatment, 62.1% rated their experience as very good and 20.7% as good. In addition, 89.8% of patients indicated that they would continue to use telemedicine for their headache care and treatment, although 45.0% preferred not to use it for all visits.

This study demonstrated that telemedicine has become an essential tool for patients and a wide variety of clinicians. “We showed the different levels of care involved in the real-life practice of headache medicine that utilised and had benefit from telemedicine. If insurance coverage for telemedicine were to be rolled back, patients and multiple levels of healthcare providers would be significantly affected,” concluded Dr Chiang.

1. Chiang CC, et al. Patient experience of telemedicine for headache care during the COVID-19 pandemic: an American Migraine Foundation survey study. AL08, IHC 2021, 8–12 September.
2. Chiang CC, et al. Headache. 2021;61(5):734–9.

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Posted on 8 November 2021