BG medical technologies inc Product Related
Post# of 5949
Product Related
TeleHealthcare
The process of obtaining a recommendation for medical cannabis is a much different process than obtaining a typical medication prescription. There are often specialized doctors that advertise for cannabis recommendation services. Since cannabis treats a wide variety of ailments, including common afflictions such as anxiety, pain, depression, and insomnia, a recommendation is generally not difficult to qualify for. For example, the Centers for Disease Control report that 50% all Americans will be treated for a mental illness at least once in their lifetime. If we add an additional percentage for the many patients suffering with chronic pain, the conclusion is that a great deal of US citizens living in a state-legal cannabis region will at one point be eligible for medical cannabis treatment. However, this rarely means that patients will receive ongoing medical care for monitoring and healing of their ailments.
When an eligible medical cannabis patient receives a “recommendation letter” in California, they receive a state-legal paper authorizing the personal medical use of cannabis. The recommendation is valid for a term of one year. No further check ups are required nor expected. Recommending doctors seldom offer advice to patients to assist them in choosing the best cannabis variant for the ailments. This leaves the decision-making process up to the patient themselves, or to cannabis dispensary volunteer workers. Rarely are either of these parties educated in medical administration of natural herbs. This puts a tremendous burden upon the patient to self-administer his or her own treatment program, which will probably result in an outcome that isn’t as effective as it could be. This “meet your doctor once per year” approach is only marginally “medical”, and has been often been the target of criticism by those who disagree with legal medical marijuana treatments.
BG Medical Technologies believes this process can be improved.
Improvement begins with recognizing that cannabis is a complex plant. While recommending physicians are trained to identify cannabis eligible ailments, it is estimated that only a few have a skilled background in the administration of natural herbs. For patients truly interested in improving their conditions, BG Medical is introducing solutions that will benefit the recommending physician, the patient, and a new third party – the naturopath. Naturopaths are treatment experts skilled in supporting the body’s natural capacity to heal. This is accomplished through a recommended regiment of diet modification, natural herbs, vitamins, and organic medicine. Utilizing Internet-enabled applications, special diagnostic devices, and video teleconferencing, BG Medical plans to offer these services to patients during their initial medical cannabis physician visit. The primary cannabis physician will first care for the patient, collect diagnostic data, and then complete a cannabis-specific review assisted by BG Medical’s database and analysis tools. The diagnostic data will then be automatically uploaded to a secure Internet cloud server. A naturopath physician located off-site will then examine the patient’s diagnostic data to see if there are additional treatment programs available that may be helpful in further treating the patient. If so, the patient will be directed to a nearby computer terminal to complete their exam. This frees up the cannabis physician for his next patient, and engages dialogue with the naturopathic physician. The naturopath will interact with the patient utilizing a specialized telemedicine application that includes video teleconferencing and information sharing features. From these interactions, additional treatment programs can be recommended. Naturopathic follow up care can be performed either at the recommending physician’s location or within the privacy of a patient’s home by installing BG Medical’s telehealthcare application. Naturopath appointments will generally repeat every 4 to 8 weeks. Diagnostic devices for home use will be offered at a reasonable cost.
BG Medical believes this telemedicine system is a non-invasive, affordable, and convenient approach to healing. True patient wellness involves monitoring progress and adjusting treatment programs as necessary. BG Medical feels that a patient struggling with an ailment should never have an entire year pass without receiving interactive care from a physician.
Patients will benefit from this program by embarking on a path of accelerated healing that can augment, and sometimes replace, traditional forms of expensive pharmaceutical therapy. Cannabis physicians will benefit by receiving an ongoing revenue share for patient referral. The naturopath physicians will benefit by expanding their client roster through remote consultations utilizing BG Medical’s telehealthcare applications. BG Medical will benefit by licensing this service to participating physicians.
reference source
http://bgmedtech.com/articles/17-telehealthcare