Jessica Ailani, MD, FAHS: The Staying Power of Telemedicine in Headache

“I’m pretty sure telemedicine is going to be around to stay…It’s a movement that has been underway since I was a resident a long time back, we just constantly struggled with payments.”

As did many other organizations, the American Headache Society (AHS) scientific committee needed to make a big adjustment ahead of its anticipated 2020 annual scientific meeting when the pandemic hit. In addition to the latest safety updates and longer-term post-marketing data on newly approved therapeutics, some recognition of how the field has been affected by the novel coronavirus was required.

One of the members of that committee, Jessica Ailani, MD, FAHS, shared her insight into the meeting plans with NeurologyLive, including a highlight of the 3 plenary talks which sought to inform the headache community about the approach to headache treatment amid a pandemic on several levels. One of the major impacts, however, has been the push toward telemedicine.

In this interview, Ailani offered her insight into how this has provided what some have considered a large push in the right direction for telemedicine, which has long offered patients a way to avoid long travel and other challenges for short visits but has been marred by challenges with insurance coverage.

For more AHS 2020 coverage, click here.