Numerous ‘tools’ have been developed for clinicians and patients that elucidate important elements of migraine diagnosis and management. Just as the stethoscope captures the dynamics of the working heart, migraine tools are an external verification of the migraineur’s level of pain and disability. Properly utilized, ‘migraine tools’ have the potential to: improve communication between patient and clinician; increase the efficiency and quality of migraine care; quantify and objectify important aspects of migraine; improve patient adherence to treatment plans; and document patient outcomes. Despite these advantages, migraine tools have not been widely adopted by the medical or patient community. The reasons for this are complex, but may relate to migraine being historically considered as recurrent episodes of pain rather than a chronic condition with the potential to evolve into a debilitating pain disease. As such, longitudinal models of migraine care have only recently been adopted by clinicians whereby both short- and long-term therapeutic needs are defined and managed.

Migraine tools have been promoted to clinicians as vehicles to improve efficiency and limit the time required for migraine evaluation. In this article we propose that migraine tools may be more appropriately utilized as a component of longitudinal care. In this manner, specific migraine tools become the focus of specified medical visits and information gleaned from these tools can be integrated into ongoing care. With this in mind, migraine tools can be divided into those that are useful in further defining episodes of migraine and those designed to define therapeutic need.

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