The Clinical Takeaway: Why migraine – a stepped management strategy for primary care

Richard Stark graduated from Monash University in 1973 and trained at the Alfred Hospital, The London Hospital and the National Hospitals for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, in London. He was then appointed Visiting Neurologist at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute. He is an enthusiastic teacher and is Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Monash University and Deputy Head of Unit, Neurology Department, Alfred Hospital. The headache clinic at the Alfred is now the largest and most active public hospital based clinic in Australia and many young Australian headache specialists have trained at the Alfred. His major area of clinical interest has been headache, but he is also highly experienced in the neurology of cancer and medico-legal neurology. He has been involved in many multi-centre trials of migraine treatments and international migraine advisory committees. He has published extensively, including studies on the use of intravenous lignocaine in patients with severe medication overuse headache and recent reviews of migraine management in Australia and in Asia. He is President of the Australia New Zealand Headache Society and on the Executive of the World Federation of Neurology as Treasurer.