[Need for collaboration between community pharmacies and hospitals or clinics in providing medical treatment for patients with headache].

It is often noted that the collaboration of hospital-to-hospital, hospital-to-clinic and clinic-to-clinic in medical care for patients with headache is important. However, the role of community pharmacies in the medical network for consultation of patients with headache is not clear. Here, we investigated the role of pharmacists in a community pharmacy in encouraging patients with headache to undergo medical examination and elucidated their future needs using a questionnaire intended for doctors and pharmacists. About 70% of pharmacists had experience with recommending that patients with headache consult a hospital. However, only 17% of doctors had experience with referral of patients with headache by pharmacists in a community pharmacy. About 22% of pharmacists had experiences in which the patient with headache refused to consult a hospital despite the recommendation, suggesting that many patients did not think that their headache symptoms were severe. In addition, 90% of doctors and 84% of pharmacists felt the need for collaboration between hospitals or clinics and community pharmacies. Doctors needed information from pharmacists on the "current state of drugs" taken by patients. However, pharmacists considered that they needed to provide not only "current state of drugs being taken" but also "symptoms of headache" to doctors. Although 67% of doctors considered the medication notebook to be useful for pharmacists to provide patient information to doctors, pharmacists preferred to provide the information by telephone. Moreover, 56% of pharmacists did not know how to search a website for medical specialists in headache. A medical network including not only hospitals or clinics but also community pharmacies might be useful for patients with headache.