Capabilities of Allegheny Health Network’s Expansive Headache Registry: Andrea Synowiec, DO

WATCH TIME: 6 minutes

"We’re looking down the road and thinking that this could change how we look at this patient population quite a bit, how we elicit data, and how we decide whether treatment is working or not. How do we then use that information to help patients understand how they might be able to partner with us? And potentially even, convince payers or insurance companies that maybe the things they might think of is more expensive or should be held down the road, are helping patients so much that they should be offered sooner?"

As technology has improved, institutions are more capable of collecting widespread, in-depth data on their patients’ responses to medication. In a field like migraine care, this is even more crucial, considering there are several new medications that have been approved in recent years. Despite their approvals, real-world data has traditionally painted a better picture of who is using the medication and whether it is as effective as it was in clinical stages, where the inclusion and exclusion criteria are more rigid.

For many clinicians, like migraine specialist Andrea Synowiec, DO, it has been an adjustment to learn the nuances of some of the newly approved medications. To combat this, Allegheny Health Network’s Headache Center recently created a headache registry, which uses existing patient records, medications prescribed, and outcomes to help with quality improvement. Synowiec, assistant director of the Headache Center at Allegheny Health Network, noted that the registry also records other patient quality of life assessments, including depression scores, anxiety scores, and a measure for fatigue.

In an interview with NeurologyLive®, Synowiec provided details on the data the registry captures, how it will be used going forward, and the biggest advantages it brings from both the patient and provider perspectives.