Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
As doctors across the District are fielding more and more questions about medical marijuana, it hasn't been easy for them to come up with the right answers.
"It's a total mess, right?" said Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, a Georgetown University expert on the pharmaceutical industry who observed the legalized cannabis market in Colorado, where physicians are conspicuously absent from the process. "At the dispensaries, it's the people at the counter giving the medical advice. But I'm like, 'Where is the evidence here?'"
She touched on a key problem that's plaguing the District, something city officials are looking to fix. On Wednesday, George Washington University and the D.C. Department of Health unveiled a new course to teach medical professionals the latest evidence-based information about medical cannabis. It's part of a broader online program launched this week called the D.C. Center for Rational Prescribing offering free continuing medical education to help medical professionals navigate the tricky world of prescription drugs.
"It's a new resource to provide educational materials to medical professionals that is free of industry influence and provides the best available evidence," said Susan Wood, the lead investigator on the project and an associate professor of health policy and management at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington. In 2014, there were more than $612 million in estimated sales of prescription drugs in the District.
The program was created to comply with rules established by the SafeRX Amendment Act passed by the D.C. Council in 2008. A group of experts from GW, Georgetown and around the country gathered the best evidence-based research and laid out the gaps in information, Wood said.
The Department of Health specifically asked for help guiding doctors impacted by its medical marijuana program. But the center also launched education modules to better understand generic drugs and how the pharmaceutical industry markets products.
"Sometimes it's about helping prescribers understand the process so they can withstand marketing," Wood said.
Other times, it's about teasing out those information gaps so doctors provide better medicine, said Fugh-Berman, one of the experts who helped design the continuing medical education program regarding cannabis.
That module includes information about its uses, its potential drug interactions and misconceptions about it.
For instance, marijuana has often been praised for its benefit to glaucoma sufferers, but research shows it has only been found to benefit that patient cohort for up to three hours at a time. Alternative drugs are more effective, she said.
"We say, 'Just use the drug,'" Fugh-Berman said.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Program Teaching Doctors On Recommending Medical Marijuana
Author: Tina Reed
Contact: Contact Page
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Biz Journals
"It's a total mess, right?" said Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, a Georgetown University expert on the pharmaceutical industry who observed the legalized cannabis market in Colorado, where physicians are conspicuously absent from the process. "At the dispensaries, it's the people at the counter giving the medical advice. But I'm like, 'Where is the evidence here?'"
She touched on a key problem that's plaguing the District, something city officials are looking to fix. On Wednesday, George Washington University and the D.C. Department of Health unveiled a new course to teach medical professionals the latest evidence-based information about medical cannabis. It's part of a broader online program launched this week called the D.C. Center for Rational Prescribing offering free continuing medical education to help medical professionals navigate the tricky world of prescription drugs.
"It's a new resource to provide educational materials to medical professionals that is free of industry influence and provides the best available evidence," said Susan Wood, the lead investigator on the project and an associate professor of health policy and management at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington. In 2014, there were more than $612 million in estimated sales of prescription drugs in the District.
The program was created to comply with rules established by the SafeRX Amendment Act passed by the D.C. Council in 2008. A group of experts from GW, Georgetown and around the country gathered the best evidence-based research and laid out the gaps in information, Wood said.
The Department of Health specifically asked for help guiding doctors impacted by its medical marijuana program. But the center also launched education modules to better understand generic drugs and how the pharmaceutical industry markets products.
"Sometimes it's about helping prescribers understand the process so they can withstand marketing," Wood said.
Other times, it's about teasing out those information gaps so doctors provide better medicine, said Fugh-Berman, one of the experts who helped design the continuing medical education program regarding cannabis.
That module includes information about its uses, its potential drug interactions and misconceptions about it.
For instance, marijuana has often been praised for its benefit to glaucoma sufferers, but research shows it has only been found to benefit that patient cohort for up to three hours at a time. Alternative drugs are more effective, she said.
"We say, 'Just use the drug,'" Fugh-Berman said.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Program Teaching Doctors On Recommending Medical Marijuana
Author: Tina Reed
Contact: Contact Page
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Biz Journals
