2023-09-07 12:48:29
Covid-19 has changed our relationship to the world and to that of medicine. And that’s a good thing for people who suffer from migraines. Today, having a doctor’s appointment requires little more than an internet connection. While many procedures, including health checkups, still take place in person, social distancing has encouraged remote communication between healthcare providers and their patients. Those who suffer from migraines have been the greatest beneficiaries. Thanks to video calls, conversations with healthcare professionals are much easier and, above all, much faster to obtain. If a person suffers from successive intense episodes or from a particularly acute migraine, the possibility of being able to call a practitioner from home can prove to be fundamental.
After calling their healthcare facility, patients can see a headache specialist in minutes, without the hassle of commuting. “The speed factor comes into play,” says Dr. Wade Cooper, a neurologist at the Memorial Healthcare Institute for Neuroscience in Owosso, Michigan. “You can call at 3:20 p.m. and be seen at 4 p.m..” Such flexibility helps migraine patients in so many ways that an appointment often doesn’t. Whether it’s a consultation taken in advance or a direct response to an episode of headaches, the various stages of a visit to the doctor can become a real headache. A long drive, a waiting room, checking the constants…
“It’s much more taxing than going straight through telehealth,” says Dr. Cooper. This drastically reduces the steps for an appointment that might only last 10 minutes. Logistically, the ease of a video call seems more suited to such a brief conversation. From the practitioner’s point of view, the more efficient management of time that telemedicine allows increases both the efficiency and the speed of the service. According to Dr. Cooper, the productivity of a single provider is multiplied. Ideally, “we can see two or three times more people with the telemedicine model,” says the specialist, adding that health systems are still working on a better way to integrate this tool.
Easier communication between the patient and the practitioner can also help find the right treatment more quickly, by empowering the migraine sufferer to participate in the process. In the traditional setting, a patient may leave their appointment with a new drug to be tested for several months until their next appointment. Thanks to telehealth, whether it’s a video call or an exchange by message, you no longer have to wait three months to find out if the new treatment works or not, according to the specialist. “They can tell me the results in four weeks,” which allows the doctor to consider other options more quickly and the patient to indicate when they are ready to try another treatment.
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