A newly developed mobile app can help patients better cope with migraine headaches. The app from Atrium Health, which feeds data to the patient’s electronic health record, also has the potential to alleviate a lot of high-cost and ineffective treatment options for doctors and hospitals.

For the past year, Atrium Health, formerly Carolinas Healthcare, in Charlotte, N.C., has been working on a headache app called MigrnX with Houston digital healthcare development company SensorRX. The aim was to help patients that suffer from chronic migraine headaches better understand their frequency patterns, the triggers behind their symptoms, medication effectiveness and the severity of their migraines.

Among all chronic diseases, migraine headaches occur the most frequently and can cost three times the cost of traditional patient care, says vice president of therapeutic research and development at Atrium Health Dr. George McLendon. That’s because nearly 37 million patients in the U.S. suffer severe migraines. The most common symptoms include one-sided throbbing pain, light and sound sensitivity, and nausea. An estimated 15% of migraine sufferers experience an aura that they often associate with visual disturbances, such as seeing sparkles or experiencing tunnel vision.

Patients may only seek treatment when they are in severe pain and often can’t recall accurately how many headaches they suffer from annually. Ineffective treatments and higher patient care costs often result because physicians may prescribe a medication that helps the patient at the time but might not be optimal for providing long-term results. Patients that suffer multiple migraines per year often end up seeking expensive emergency room care that can cost as much as $10,000 annually. But better pain management through the right mix of medication and office visits can reduces costs to under $4,000, Atrium says.

“A patient may tell a doctor they recall having three severe migraines a year when in reality it’s 19,” McLendon says. Medications used to treat migraines fall into two broad categories: pain-relieving medications (also known as acute or abortive treatment) and preventative medications. “Typically, patients would want to use an abortive agent—a medicine they would take when the migraine is coming on,” he says.

The MigrnX app is an automated migraine-management tool that directly impacts patients’ care. Over 500 patients at Atrium Health are using the app as an electronic version of a migraine diary, which provides physicians with the data necessary for better treatment, McLendon says.

Once patients have downloaded the Apple or Android app, they are able to electronically record when they are having a migraine, the symptoms they are experiencing and their severity, McLendon says.

They are then prompted to check off the medication they are using and how it affected their migraine.

The app additionally allows patients to record other possible triggers, like whether they are menstruating, are getting enough sleep or have eaten something outside their usual diet. Further, the app records environmental triggers that may have an effect on migraine patterns. “The app is automatically recording the barometric pressure, the weather, the light in the room and sound to detect environmental triggers,” says Atrium Health neurologist Dr. Adam Bodner.

Every three months the app automatically prompts users to participate in a routine migraine disability assessment (MIDAS) test to determine the extent to which migraines are affecting everyday life, such as asking whether they have missed work or school, or their productivity has suffered. The history of past assessments are stored within the app and users are given the option to share their results with their physician by either printing a PDF report or sending their records via email to inform providers of their conditions.

The app also sends information to the patient’s electronic health record. With better access to patient data, doctors are better able to see patterns and history and compare data against other headache sufferers and their treatments and results, says Atrium Health. With the MigrnX app and the link to the patient’s electronic health records and Atrium’s patient portal, physicians also have the ability to make follow-up appointments online and write the patient and electronic prescription for pickup at a convenient pharmacy.

The app is free for download, but an Atrium Health physician must issue the patient a log-in number once the doctor determines the app will help with the patient’s treatment.

The MigrnX app is being used for headache management for now, but it could also help better manage a broader range of chronic diseases, McLendon says. “This could help with better primary care and dealing with the high cost of medical care,” he says.

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