Sapphire Medical Clinics Launches Medical Cannabis Education Service for UK Doctors and Patients
Sapphire Medical Clinics, the first specialized medical cannabis clinic in the UK approved to see patients by the Care Quality Commission, has today launched its educational platform for healthcare professionals and patients.
The platform will include free educational webinars that cover the latest evidence for medical cannabis treatments, dosing and monitoring, modes of administration, and key case study examples.
In response to NICE
The team behind Sapphire Medical Clinics decided to develop the new educational resource, dubbed the Sapphire Institute for Medical Cannabis Education, in response to a recent medical cannabis report in the UK.
That review from last August, authored by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), found that the research supporting cannabis as an epilepsy treatment was “limited and of low quality,” and so it “did not warrant a practice recommendation.”
But, in amongst its key findings from surveys, the report also highlighted how healthcare professionals should ideally undergo specific training to broaden their knowledge on medical cannabis before being certified.
To deliver on this ambition, Sapphire Medical Clinics has partnered with the patient advocacy groups Cannabis Patient Advocacy & Support Services (CPASS) and PLEA (Patient Led Engagement for Access) to bring the new educational service to a broader base.
“Our education programme provides healthcare professionals with essential knowledge and insight into medical cannabis and its potential uses,” Dr Mikael Sodergren, managing director and academic lead at Sapphire Clinics, said in a statement.
“We know from a recent YouGov poll that 6.7 million adults in the UK would like to discuss cannabis-based treatment options with their healthcare teams. We want clinicians to feel confident about when and how to talk to their patients about medical cannabis.”
Last week, Sapphire Clinics launched a new real-world evidence platform to help collect clinical information from patients taking medical cannabis treatments in the UK. It’s hoped this service will one day enable patients to access cannabis-based medicines on the country’s National Health Service.
