Building a national headache medicine research network: The BE WELL with Migraine Champion Providers Network™.

Abstract

Objective: Our objective was to develop and assess the effectiveness of a national network of clinicians referring adults with migraine for a remotely delivered clinical trial.

Background: A national practice-based research network in Headache Medicine would facilitate referrals into clinical trials. Given our unique, entirely virtual study, we established a national network of health care professionals to identify potential participants.

Methods: The BE WELL with Migraine Champion Providers Network™ began to support clinician referrals across the United States into a remotely conducted clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of a nondrug virtual group intervention. Participant trial recruitment includes community outreach and clinician referrals, then potential participants complete a multi-step eligibility process. The primary study team obtains informed consent and collects all study outcomes. Clinicians interested in referring patients register for the Network via a Research Electronic Data Capture survey. The ongoing clinical trial allows for recruitment of trial participants and network members through 2026. We analyzed Network survey results through February 25, 2025, with descriptive statistics and qualitative analyses. We compared participant progression through eligibility assessment between clinician referral and community outreach.

Results: The BE WELL with Migraine Champion Providers Network™ includes 46 clinicians across the United States through February 2025, and most (89%) of them are headache specialists. Although many have previously served as trial principal investigator (PI) (54%) or recruited (72%) for a trial in the past, 28% are recruiting for a clinical trial for the first time. Top motivating factors for Network participation included nonpharmacological option (n = 12), research contribution (n = 11), potential for patient improvement (n = 11), and working with PI (n = 9). To date, 905 participants completed the initial online screener, with 5% (n = 41) from clinician referrals and 95% (n = 864) from community recruitment. Of those, 12.3% (n = 107) were eligible to continue and consented and completed the virtual interview. After the interview, 65 participants progressed to the headache log run-in period and then were randomized/eligible for randomization (six from referrals, 59 from community). Of the original participants from clinician referrals who completed the online screener, 14.6% (six of 41) were randomized/eligible for randomization, compared to 6.8% (59 of 864) recruited via community. Once consented, 100% (six of six) of Network-referred patients progressed to randomization/eligibility for randomization versus only 58% (59 of 101) from community recruitment.

Conclusion: The BE WELL with Migraine Champion Providers Network™ models the development and implementation of a national clinician referring network that can help accomplish the field's research priorities. Although growth and implementation of a national network takes time, our results demonstrate the yield of appropriate referrals eligible for randomization was more than double community recruitment.