PO-64 | Telemedicine in a second level headache clinic of Azienda Sanitaria Locale Roma 1: a lesson learned from the SarsCov2 pandemic
Teresa Catarci | ASL Roma 1, Rome, Italy
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Background: During the SARSCov2 pandemic thousands of patients could not be visited in the headache centres due to lockdown. Therefore, we managed to help patients mainly through phone calls and advice sent via mail to their general practitioners for the first visits or directly to the patients in case of follow-up visits. Once the lockdown was over, in order to see the smallest number of patients possible in person, the Region of Latium arranged a telemedicine platform in addition to our ASL virtual meetings platform.
Methods: Soon after the pandemic was over, we started the televisits in a more systematic manner through the SISMED platform provided by the Region of Latium. Control neurological televisits could be booked and paid via the regional system of booking (reCup) and therefore be included in the new essential level of assistance (LEA) of our National Health System.
Results: During the lockdown period (March-June 2020) about 150 patients were contacted via phone calls or emails. Video calls were then arranged for another 100 patients from July 2020 to November 2021 when the control neurological televisits had a formal kick off. From November 2021 until now we have performed 223 control neurological televisits in patients with headache for the following reasons:
- family or work commitments
- long distance from the clinic
- travel due to work, family reasons or holidays
- living abroad for longer periods.
Conclusion: Telemedicine in headache care has already been described as useful and successful (Clausen et al, Cephalalgia 2022;42:1397-1408). We have performed about 500 virtual neurological visits in headache patients from the pandemic until now. It is possible to conclude that what was started because of necessity has now become a useful tool to better follow-up headache patients. We hope that more and more headache clinics will implement telemedicine in the near future, also following the recent recommendation of the National Health Service.
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