"Dr. Worcester On The Role Of Big Pharma In Cannabis Research & Education For Cancer Pain Management"Summary/AbstractDr. Brooke Worster is the Chief Medical Advisor at Ethios and a cancer pain specialist. She is also a cannabis researcher at Thomas Jefferson University in Pennsylvania. On the show, she discussed her background in pain management and how she got interested in cannabis research. She explained how cannabis is often recommended to her patients, either by their family members, caregivers, or friends. However, the medical community doesn't pay much attention to the positive side of cannabis. She is working to change that and to provide more resources to people interested in cannabis.Dr. Jeffrey Gendelman discussed his experience with medical cannabis, which began when he felt like he had to respond to patients' questions with I don't know as he had not done much research on the subject. However, when the Pennsylvania legislature passed legislation allowing academic medical centers to partner with vertically integrated growth, production, and dispensing companies, he decided to take the initiative and learn more.Dr. Gendelman noted the disconnect between patients and providers when it comes to cannabis; patients often feel uncomfortable bringing it up and providers rarely initiate the dialogue due to a lack of knowledge. He believes it's important for doctors, particularly oncologists, to learn how to talk to their patients about cannabis in order to bridge this gap.The conversation is about how healthcare professionals are not engaging with cannabis as a treatment option. The speaker notes that only a quarter of 10,000 cancer patients feel comfortable talking to their physicians about cannabis. The stigma and hysteria surrounding cannabis have made some patient groups reluctant to even bring up the topic with their physician. The speaker wonders why the medical community has not embraced the potential of cannabis as a therapy, given its long history of use in medicine. He argues that access to and use of cannabis is increasing, and medical professionals must pay attention to it. He also notes that research into the potential of cannabis as a therapy has been limited due to restrictions on its use. The speaker suggests healthcare professionals must become more educated about cannabis and its potential therapeutic uses.There is not enough education and training available for healthcare professionals to bridge the gap in knowledge around cannabis. This lack of accessible education means that professionals have to do their own research and digging to gain knowledge. It is important to talk to patients and hear their experiences, although it is not the same as a randomized clinical trial. To gain more knowledge and bridge the gap, healthcare professionals should make some noise about the educational gap and try to get more educational outreach and efforts happening.Timestamps0:00:06Conversation with Dr. Brooke Worster, Chief Medical Advisor at Ethios and Cancer Pain Specialist0:03:01Exploring the Disconnect between Patients and Providers on Cannabis Use0:05:30Exploring the Disconnect Between Clinicians and Cannabis Use in Cancer Patients0:10:48Discussion on Accessible Education for Healthcare Professionals on Cannabis Use0:13:10Heading: Dr. Worcesters Discusses the Legalization of Medical Cannabis and Dispels the Myth of Losing Licenses0:16:02Heading: Discussion on the Role of Big Pharma in Cancer Pain Management with Dr. Worcester0:20:23Heading: The Power of Plant-Based Medicines in Treating Cancer Pain and Nausea0:22:35Discussion on the Need for Standardized Cannabis Labeling Systems0:26:13Conversation on Standardizing Cannabis Information for Patients0:28:15Heading: Exploring Cannabis Use in Healthcare: A Conversation with Dr. Worcester0:30:17Interview with Dr. Lola Wasa: Exploring the Benefits of Cannabis MedicineHighlightsFinally, Dr. Worcester, I have another of your quote. You said, the patient knows this stuff. They are reading it online and hearing from friends, but they are also getting a lot of disinformation and bad advice from this. We as a medical community need to step up, embrace these resources that patients are using, whether they are in a legal state, use or not, and provide some guidance. What else can we do in the community, especially in the healthcare space, to make sure patients are getting evidence-based data?I think it would go a long way if we even kind of got our act together enough to have a standardized labeling system for cannabis for products. Right. Because the way that they're labeled is all different from state to state and how it's kind of shown concentration versus percentage of various cannabinoids versus ratios. That's confusing to patients. So I think one thing that I would say could be changed that would kind of a little bit come from the dispensary and the legislative side that wouldn't require a ton of work, but would just be to say kind of like we do ...
