Telemedicine Healthcare for Headache Medicine During COVID-19 and Beyond

Abstract

The current COVID-19 pandemic sheds light on the importance of telemedicine in the care of patients experiencing headaches. Generally, headache patients suffer from lack of access to healthcare and physicians specializing in headache medicine. Now more than ever, telemedicine is needed during the COVID-19 pandemic to limit unnecessary virus exposure while still providing high-level quality care. Currently there is no published research regarding the risk of COVID-19 infections in headache patients. Nevertheless, headache patients must follow best practices like the rest of the population to limit their personal risk of infection and to mitigate virus community spread. During this unprecedented public health crisis, our priority as headache specialists and health care professionals is to support social distancing while ensuring proper access to healthcare. Telemedicine will play a key role in expanding such access to physicians specializing in headache medicine. Furthermore, the expansion of telemedicine initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic will most likely continue once the pandemic ends secondary to documented high levels of acceptability, patient satisfaction, improvements in patient access, and cost of care reductions. The purpose of this manuscript is to define the current utilization of telemedicine for headache patients and to provide strategies for incorporation into headache care plans during the COVID-19 pandemic.