Researchers concluded that by combining the benefits of IRT scoring and the Internet, HIT improves the measurement of headache disability. This technology allows greater measurement precision while reducing patient burden, resulting in greater accessibility for patients. The debilitating effects of headache are often underestimated and people who suffer are sometimes unable to determine the impact of headache on what they are able to do. As a result, doctors may find it difficult to monitor a patient and prescribe the optimal treatment. Having a tool such as HIT allows patients and doctors to work together to accurately measure the degree of disability headache has on a patient's life.
Patients can print a report, save their results and compare their progress over time.
They can also print a report for their physician so they can work together to track outcomes, determine what treatments work best and develop a customized management plan. HIT offers patients an evaluation tool with results so accurate that they can be used in partnership with physicians to help make individualized medical decisions about treatment of their headaches. The result of this process is that each question is appropriate and the time it takes to complete the survey is kept to a minimum. The brevity of the assessment means that results are determined at a fraction of the cost of traditional health assessments. Glaxo Wellcome Inc. based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., is one of the nation's leading research-based pharmaceutical firms.