Letter from the Editor
While management of headache always has suffered from a “supply/demand” problem, the ongoing pandemic has served to highlight and aggravate that imbalance. Given the prevalence of headache in our society—and the prevalence of migraine in particular—there are simply too many citizens in need of headache management but too few providers available to meet that need. Again, COVID-19 has served to highlight this mismatch.
Telemedicine has proven itself to be a godsend in helping headache sub-specialists restore, maintain and even exceed their pre-COVID levels of clinical activity. How can you help? Perhaps even more so than with a traditional face-to-face evaluation, adequate preparation in advance of your appointment is likely to result in a more satisfying outcome. The same tips for preparation published in the 2018 Spring issue are entirely relevant to telemedicine. In a future issue we will address “tele-evaluation” of headache in more detail.
This is an excellent time to be flexible, to be patient with one another and to explore new methods for improving the provider: patient “therapeutic alliance”. Telemedicine represents one such option.
As always, any question, comment or potential contribution from the readership will be welcomed. Please address them to edoffice@migraineurmagazine.com.