Welcome to the Empowered Patient Podcast with Karen Jagoda. This show is a window into the latest innovations in applying generative AI, novel therapeutics and vaccines, and the changing dynamics in the medical and healthcare environment. One focus is on how providers, pharmaceutical companies, and payers are empowering patients. In addition, conversations are often about how providers, care facilities, pharmaceutical companies, and payers are being empowered by technology to improve patient outcomes and reduce friction across the healthcare landscape.
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May 13, 2024
Phil Johnston, President and CEO of Johnston Associates, and an advisor to EO Care, the market leader in providing clinically-guided cannabis use. Phil discusses the potential for research from the reclassification of cannabis from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug. With current Federal restrictions on cannabis, research has not been conducted on the potential therapeutic use for pain relief, depression, PTSD, and other conditions. With a change in classification, researchers can develop protocols, test different cannabis strains, run clinical trials, and determine dosage and form for therapies.
Phil explains, "So changing the Schedule from I to III is a game-changer because it's going to allow for research in the cannabis area in terms of dosage, what's the appropriate dosage, what kind of marijuana should be used for whatever ails you. There's a particular emphasis, of course, on pain relief and sleeplessness and depression. It appears that cannabis can have a very serious positive impact on those maladies, but we need much more research, and that's where we come in. That's what we're trying to focus on with EO Care."
"If you talk to any MD in the country, they'll tell you that they didn't learn anything about cannabis in medical school, and that was because of the Federal ban. And so there hasn't been a lot of research done. It's anecdotal at this point, such as my wife's situation, and what we need is for the Federal Government and the states to lead the way to make sure that there's funding for research and that medical schools are including that in their curricula. The research will involve what normally is involved with drugs, which is trials to determine exactly what the best treatments would be."
"Dosing is very important to figure out how much of it one needs, given whatever the specific problem is. And none of that research has been done in this country yet. Now, we're doing a sweep of international studies. It turns out that Canada, which legalized this a long time ago, has done trials and has some research, which we can adapt. However, that work has to be done, and it has to be done within medical institutions in the United States as well."
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