Delayed Access Is a Migraine Risk Factor: Precision Triage as the Missing Link in Modern Headache Care

Migraine care has become scientifically precise while many patient pathways remain operationally imprecise. Diagnostic criteria, global burden data, migraine-specific preventive therapies, and emerging digital tools are available, yet many patients still experience delayed diagnosis, underestimated disability, escalating acute medication use, and late access to prevention. This perspective argues that delayed access should be understood not merely as an administrative barrier, but as a modifiable risk factor that may contribute to migraine progression, medication overuse, and avoidable disability. It proposes precision triage as a practical implementation framework for connecting headache classification, burden assessment, medication-overuse risk, rational preventive treatment selection, timely referral, and accountable use of digital health tools. The central claim is that modern migraine care must shift from disconnected visits to a pathway-based model that asks what each patient needs next and how soon. Such a shift may help translate existing headache knowledge into faster, fairer, and more clinically responsive care.