Telemedicine in the management of non-acute headaches: A prospective, open-labelled non-inferiority, randomised clinical trial

Abstract

Objectives We determined headache patients’ satisfaction with telemedicine and assessed how telemedicine influenced headache burden, compliance with diagnosis and treatment, and need for follow-up consultations. Methods During 2.5 years, patients from Northern Norway referred with non-acute headaches for a specialist consultation at Tromsø University Hospital were consecutively randomised to either telemedicine or traditional visits. Baseline data were recorded and compared to data from a three-month follow-up questionnaire (see Supplementary material). The following were evaluated: (1) satisfaction with the consultation; (2) headache status; subjective improvement, average pain intensity, treatment, headache days per month, and Headache Impact Test (HIT-6); and (3) treatment compliance and follow-up visits. Results Out of 402 consultations, 348 (86.6%) answered the questionnaire. Satisfaction was similar in the telemedicine and the traditional group (88.8% vs. 92.3%; p = 0.35). Subgroup analyses were not prespecified, but there were no differences in satisfaction among females, migraineurs, rural patients and urban patients. Improvement from baseline after three months was reported equally in the telemedicine and the traditional groups. There were also no differences in treatment compliance, but rural telemedicine patients had less-frequent headache visits at three months’ follow-up (28.9% vs. 48.7%, p = 0.002). Conclusion Telemedicine is non-inferior to traditional consultations in patient satisfaction, specialist evaluation, and treatment of non-acute headaches. ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02270177.