Virtual Headache Specialist

Why Virtual Headache Specialist Was Created

Many patients suffer with debilitating headache, migraine, and facial pain disorders. Unfortunately, there are very few headache specialists available to help them. This makes access to appropriate care for proper diagnosis and treatment very difficult, and many times impossible. This leads to prolonged suffering without clear direction or successful treatment, resulting in a poor quality of life affecting personal, family, social, and work life.

There are only 570 headache specialists in the US, and this access is much worse in other countries. So, access is limited, and many states do not have a single headache specialist. In states that do have headache specialists, most of the state including rural areas are long distances from these specialists. Wait times are excessive, usually many months (more than 6 months or longer is common), and most patients travel from long distances with many out of state, or out of country. They are often frustrated without direction or an idea of what type of headache or facial pain they are dealing with, haven’t received clear answers or effective treatments from their local doctors, and they have been in this position for years because there are no headache specialists near them. They all do a lot of self-education and research on the Internet, which is almost always misleading and anxiety provoking.

For these reasons, Virtual Headache Specialist was created by Dr. Eric P. Baron, an ABPN (American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology) board certified neurologist who is also a UCNS (United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties) certified Diplomat in Headache Medicine, working in the Cleveland Clinic Headache Center in Cleveland, Ohio. He created the free educational service to help alleviate the lack of access to a headache specialist by providing a personalized headache and facial pain symptom checker tool for a list of possible types of headache or facial pain disorders, extensive educational content, and highly informational blog articles. The purpose is to provide guidance for both the self-researching patient and their local physician to have a more educational and effective office visit in discussing possible headache and facial pain types to consider, along with their most common treatments.

How Virtual Headache Specialist Works

Virtual Headache Specialist uniquely converts how a headache specialist interviews a patient in the headache clinic, including specific headache and facial pain questions, into a computer questionnaire algorithm. Based on personalized responses, a list of possible headache or facial pain disorders is provided, along with extensive education for each type. This process is done in 5 easy steps:

1) Choose your headache or face pain location on the 8 illustrations provided.

2) Answer location-specific personalized questions including:
-Location of pain (8 illustrations)
-Unique features (there are many headaches that have a very characteristic feature for diagnosis)
-Pain frequency
-Pain duration
-Pain description
-Associated neurologic symptoms
-Additional associated symptoms

3) Receive a personalized list of possible types of headaches or facial pains.

4) Click on each result listed for detailed information, testing, common and most effective treatments, and further educational links.

5) Print out the information to take with you to your local doctor to discuss and help narrow down your type of headache or facial pain, and discuss more effective treatment options.

Migraine, Headache, and Facial Pain Blog

The Virtual Headache Specialist website also includes a very popular blog article section discussing common questions that patients and other doctors ask headache specialists, important headache and migraine topics, treatment tips, headache hacks, cutting-edge information on the newest treatments, and a wide variety of other topics. These blog articles are written based on the extensive first-hand experience, knowledge, and perspective of a headache specialist, combined with the latest evidence-based medicine.

In Summary

Virtual Headache Specialist is a unique one-of-a-kind service. Think of it as the go to “Web MD of Headache, Migraine, and Facial Pain Disorders”. Virtual Headache Specialist is completely free, with no registrations, sign-ups, or charges of any kind. The website and services are purely for informational and educational purposes only. It does not provide specific medical advice, give a definitive diagnosis, or recommend specific treatments, but rather information that you can take with you to discuss in your next office visit with your doctor in hopes of better answers and more effective treatments.