Patient Gary Sutherland | ‘For me, sharing with my GP that I self medicate with cannabis allowed him to gain an understanding that I no longer needed opioid pain medication, which has now been replaced by medical cannabis.’
How can we create dialogue with GP’s to allow them to gain an understanding of the potential benefits of cannabinoids?
Gary's doctor stopped writing him a prescription for opioids and helped him apply for his medical cannabis prescription - there are GP's who understand and see the difference it makes in patients lives....
Show them the data and the research - in an easily accessible way. Supplement the published research with patient narratives, experiences from clinicians, and clinicians' medication administration protocols. Unfortunately, all of these points of data may be easily dismissed as many (if not most) nursing and medical school curricula do not even include the endocannabinoid system. Keep putting the information out there anyway, in any and every way possible.
This is the barrier faced by many pharmaceutical companies, even when they launch a significantly superior drug, especially one that is so applicable to general practice. The usual approach is to identify and target the KOL's in secondary care, then disseminate their experiences to GP audiences. Then of course there is NICE. The barriers are immense.
Respected Consultants/Professors based in hospitals or teaching hospitals. They often speak at conferences & medical education events on their specialism.
Gary's doctor stopped writing him a prescription for opioids and helped him apply for his medical cannabis prescription - there are GP's who understand and see the difference it makes in patients lives....
Show them the data and the research - in an easily accessible way. Supplement the published research with patient narratives, experiences from clinicians, and clinicians' medication administration protocols. Unfortunately, all of these points of data may be easily dismissed as many (if not most) nursing and medical school curricula do not even include the endocannabinoid system. Keep putting the information out there anyway, in any and every way possible.
Send each surgery an information pack and ask each doc to search their soul when reading and read with an open mind.
This is the barrier faced by many pharmaceutical companies, even when they launch a significantly superior drug, especially one that is so applicable to general practice. The usual approach is to identify and target the KOL's in secondary care, then disseminate their experiences to GP audiences. Then of course there is NICE. The barriers are immense.
Thank you Moyra, and we fully agree - can you explain what you mean by 'KOL's in secondary care' incase our readers are unsure?
Respected Consultants/Professors based in hospitals or teaching hospitals. They often speak at conferences & medical education events on their specialism.