June 2021 Society Spotlight

Happy Summer everyone! Hopefully, you are enjoying some time with family and friends.

I am Andrew Hershey and am currently the chair of the Guidelines Committee. I have been a member of the American Headache Society since 1997, the same year I joined the faculty at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in the departments of Pediatrics and Neurology. At that time, I joined Scott Powers, PhD, FAHS, in the Cincinnati Children’s Headache Center (founded Oct, 1996).

Over the past 25 years, we have continued to be a growing team with: Headache Medicine specialists (Drs. Marielle Kabbouche, clinical director; and Joanne Kacperski, educational director); headache-specialized advanced-practice nurses (including Susan LeCates, Shannon White, Chelsea Herald, Kelly Sitterle, as well as several others that have moved on); pain psychologists (including Drs. Shalonda Slater, Anne Lynch-Jordan, Sanita Ley, Kevin Hommel); nurses dedicated to headache patients (Ann Segers, Paula Manning, Stephanie Pelopida, Jill Dillon); clinical research coordinators (Antoinette Green, Emily Hunsaker, Jordan Ng); and many other researchers on a broader team, both at Cincinnati Children’s and across the nation and world. We have developed and maintained an active fellowship program with our first fellow starting in 2001 (Dr. Kabbouche) and continuing to our current fellow Dr. Ankita Ghosh; with many of our fellows being honored by award through the American Headache Society that has served as a launching pad to their careers in Headache Medicine. Nearly all of us have actively participated in American Headache Society activities to improve the lives of our patients and their families.

The driving vision of the Cincinnati Children’s Headache Center is that through our clinical, research and educational missions, we will improve the lives of children, adolescents and young adults with headaches, not only here, but across the world. To do this we have developed a robust research and education program, presenting much of our findings at the Scientific Meetings and Scottsdale Meetings of the American Headache Society and publishing these results in Headache.

Within the American Headache Society, I have served many roles. I have participated in multiple sections, chairing several of them, including serving as the “Chair of Chairs” as the representative for the Special Interest Sections to the Board from 2006 to 2010. In 2010, I joined the AHS Board of Directors and served until 2016. I was also an associate editor for Headache from 2009-2020. My most recent role has been Chair of the Guidelines Committee starting in 2020.

The Guidelines Committee of the AHS serves the mission of leading the development of new guidelines, reviewing existing evidence-based guidelines, position statements/white papers, and opinion pieces; all intended to help us better evaluate and treat our patients with headache disorders. As part of this process, we have recently published updated procedures to assist in the development, approval, and publication in Headache (Headache. 2021 Apr;61(4):565-566. doi: 10.1111/head.14093. PMID: 33891346). There are many opportunities for advancing our current guidelines as well as developing new guidelines. As part of the process, the Guidelines Committee welcomes all members and sections that are interested in developing guidelines to discuss the process with any of us so that we can help assure success. Although the effort can be a challenge, the rewards for our patients and the field of Headache Medicine are well worth it. Please feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions about the process.

We have just finished our virtual scientific meeting and I hope that this has inspired many of you to think about the science of our field and how guidelines, position papers, and opinion papers can be developed. Here is to a great summer for all and seeing you in person at Scottsdale.

Andrew