CBD or in other words, the cannabinoid is a popular chemical that’s made out of the cannabis plant. It’s an organic part of this plant, making the product generally organic and good to use. But what is it used for and what are the benefits of using so-called cannabinoids? Unlike popular beliefs and strong connotations to weed, cannabinoid oil and pills do not make you high or have any hallucinogen effects. So it’s safe to say that even people who don’t recreationally use marijuana, opt for using this kind of alternative for more than one reason. So here are 6 medical benefits of cannabinoids for people!

1.  Anti-anxiety

Unfortunately, we live in a society where a lot of people are under pressure to live a fast life with lots of stress, this can lead to a lot of mental problems like anxiety and depression. But there is a strong link between cannabis and anxiety, that can ease the symptoms and make your life a lot easier. Generally speaking, cannabis works as a calming, suiting drug that can be consumed in more than one way, but not a lot of people can and want to consume it recreationally and for medical reasons. That’s why a lot of anxiety-driven people opt for a more subtle but effective approach like using cannabinoid pills to treat their symptoms! This is also used to treat other mental illnesses like schizophrenia to suit the side effects, while people with insomnia use it to relax and fall asleep better – so it’s safe to say that it’s pretty beneficial for mental and physical wellbeing!

2.  Pain relief

Ween has been around for centuries, and it’s not called the wonder plant without a good reason! People have always used it to relieve pain. A lot of people of all ages suffer from some sort of chronic pain, and it can be difficult to live with it every day without relying heavily on painkillers and prescription drugs. So many have been opting for CBD instead in their fight against pain! cannabinoids works on a molecular level, they can register and impact the chemical within the human organism and influence them, so this alone can lessen chronic pain. Generally speaking, cannabis works best as a relaxer, both with the body and the mind, so it naturally eases up your body, especially the inflammation that can occur after injuries or due to certain diseases!

3.  Cancer treatment

Cannabis has been in medical use for some time now, helping patients battle various symptoms and side effects of their illnesses and treatments. The same goes with cancer and cannabis, especially CBD – it can help suit the aftermath of treatments, make it easier for the patient to feel relaxed, nausea, and pain-free. There are theories and research stating that the substances in cannabis help with regenerating cells and stops aggressive cancer cells from expanding but those are yet to be further researched and proven. But weed is commonly used by cancer patients of all kinds, and the consumption can vary from smoking weed, edibles, and obviously the consumption of these benefits through various products.

4.  Eases cardiovascular diseases

The heart is an extremely important organ in our body, generally speaking, the whole cardiovascular system is connected and the rest of the body relies heavily on it. Unfortunately, a lot of people have heart and blood problems, especially high blood pressure, regardless of age and gender. Researchers have found the link between chemical compounds from weed and easing up cardiovascular problems by lowering high blood pressure. It’s also connected to stress levels, people who are always under high amounts of stress, are more likely to have heart problems and high blood pressure, so the cannabidiol works as a relaxer, calming both the nerves and easing up the pressure. This is important to avoid strokes and other disasters that come with cardiovascular problems!

5.  Skin problems

Cannabis products come in all shapes and sizes, most notably as oils, but they can be produced in skincare as well! Skin problems are widespread all across the globe, conditions such as acne hit a large part of the population, in puberty, early adulthood, or even in the middle of your life! But, instead of using harsh chemicals and heavy-duty skincare, why not opt for something more organic like using the goods from the cannabis plant! Due to its anti-inflammatory powers, it can work well to ease the effects that acne leaves on your skin! There are also so many different skin conditions such as eczema, and psoriasis that are both painful and hard to live with. But if you are already going to a dermatologist, it’s worth bringing this oil up and discussing the possible usage, depending on what kind of skin condition you are dealing with, and then you can decide on if it’s worth a shot for your skin or not!

6.  Neurological issues

It is said that weed has a positive effect on people with neurological issues such as multi sclerosis due to its calming and antioxidant values that can calm down the effects of the nervous system causing neurological diseases and inflammations. There is still a lot of research to do, especially connecting the specific aspects of the cannabinoids with the receptors in human brains, how they can improve them and ease the damage caused by the various diseases. People with other neurological diseases also use cannabis oils for medical or recreational purposes, like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke survivors, and similar. Epilepsy is also one of the more common neurological issues amongst both young people and old, and a lot of research is determining whether cannabinoids reduce seizures and eases the body!

Researchers are always trying to get to the bottom of things, find new ways that cannabis, in general, can be of good use, not only in recreational usage but specifically in the medical field. At the end of the day, even if you don’t suffer from horrible disease or chronic pain, you can still use cannabinoid products as a way to ease daily pain or to ease stress levels! There is more good than bad that can be gained from using this kind of product!

James River Cardiology, a multi-location Virginia-based cardiology practice, and GoMo Health®, announce a personalized digital therapeutic for cardiac patients (and their caregivers) undergoing a cardiac catheterization and/or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedure. This may be an angioplasty or a stent; non-surgical procedures that use a catheter to place a stent to open blood vessels in the heart that have been narrowed by plaque buildup, a condition known as atherosclerosis. The Cardiac Care Concierge program uses the BehavorialRx®  science of engagement to communicate via mobile messaging and interactive “conversations”, helping to guide pre and postoperative patient care. This nurturing approach has proven to decrease complications and increase compliance leading up to and following procedures, including proper pre-procedural prep, or post-procedure allergic reactions, site infection, bruising, swelling, or bleeding. The program also includes GoMo Chat, an on-demand bi-directional chatbot that enables triage of patients’ self-expressed challenges, escalating to a live care coordinator to intercede and provide direct support to avoid adverse event progression. 

Successful cardiac care delivery goes beyond the traditional intervention and treatment – it extends into patients’ daily lives and is most effective when it considers each patient and their own set of unique psychosocial factors that comprise who they are as unique individuals. “James River Cardiology is a patient-centered practice, and we understand that our patients may naturally have questions and concerns about pre- and post-procedural care. This can impact their confidence in properly managing their condition, and in turn, their adherence to their care plan and associated lifestyle modifications impacting a successful outcome,” explains Shaiv Kapadia, M.D., cardiologist at James River Cardiology with a passion for delivering a clinically integrated approach to whole person care delivery. “Through our partnership with GoMo Health, we are able to extend our whole person-centered care approach beyond the walls of our clinic and meet our patients in their day-to-day lives.” 

“Adoption of telehealth therapeutics in cardiac care is changing health care delivery from traditionally rushed, transactional experiences limited to the hospital or office-based setting visits to technology-supported interactions that are virtual, on-demand, and personal,” says Bob Gold, Chief Behavioral Technologist, GoMo Health. “The future of successful healthcare is a model that includes personalization based on the unique needs of each individual, with care that’s able to be scaled to accommodate the growing number of people worldwide who are managing chronic and complex conditions.” 

About GoMo Health: 

GoMo Health® applies a proprietary, evidence-based science of engagement, BehavioralRx®, to our cloud-based digital therapeutic, Concierge Care®, to actively extend care plans, and provide resources and support to people in their “lived” environments – enhancing outpatient care and impact. This outpatient care delivery model integrates support for psychosocial and physical needs to create personalized, behaviorally based care plans that empower patients in their own care management and healthy decision making.  Connecting with patients via its’ Telehealth Triple Play™, GoMo Health using an intelligent mobile BOT to collect and triage patient data via home medical devices, conduct in the moment “conversations”, and gather electronic patient reported outcomes (ePRO). This has proven to modify behaviors of patients with chronic and complex conditions worldwide, resulting in significant improvement in health outcomes and adherence, and decreased costs of care for providers, hospitals, health plans, employers, and life science companies.  

About James River Cardiology: 

James River Cardiology provides comprehensive cardiovascular care to Virginians with same day appointments available at six locations practicing team–based care. Services include coronary intervention, non-surgical heart valve replacement, peripheral artery disease treatment, and the latest diagnostic options. James River Cardiology’s approach to heart health is comprehensive, preventative, and personalized.

AirCARE1 announces their newest medical capabilities of offering High Flow Oxygen therapy to their patients during Air Medical Transports out of the west coast. As a leading Air Ambulance provider to bring this new medical intervention into the air, AirCARE1 can now transport patients with respiratory conditions such as COVID-19 or Pneumonia that require higher flow rates for long distances despite the limited oxygen capacity onboard their Learjet aircraft.

High flow oxygen therapy has been primarily used in the hospital setting and has helped reduce the need of invasive ventilation. This method has proven to be an effective, non-invasive solution that allows patients to receive oxygen while reducing strain on the body and support healing. The AirCARE1 medical crew took notice of this new trend taking place in the hospitals and read studies that showed it to be extremely beneficial. Embracing the company’s progressive culture, the AirCARE1 medical crew took it upon themselves to find a way to incorporate high flow into the company’s Air Ambulance services.

How High Flow Oxygen Therapy Works

High flow oxygen therapy, typically delivered via a high flow nasal canula (HFNC), is a form of respiratory support used primarily in the hospital setting. HFNC is a blended air and oxygen mixture that provides more constant inspiratory oxygen concentrations to the patient with minimal breathing effort. During the recent pandemic, high flow oxygen therapy gained popularity on COVID patients due to its multiple benefits while remaining noninvasive.

While oxygen remains a common intervention to treat numerous conditions, it can be delivered through noninvasive methods such as nasal cannula or non-rebreather or through more invasive methods such as c-pap, bi-pap or even mechanical ventilation. High flow oxygen therapy is now bridging the gap between traditional noninvasive and invasive methods and proving to be effective in improving gas exchange and decreasing the patient’s work of breathing with the hope of patient improvement without the need for mechanical ventilation.

Patients that benefit from HFNC?

AirCARE1 transports patients of all ages and medical conditions. This new capability will allow the transport of adult, pediatric and even NICU patients that require higher flow rates than 15 liters per minute in cases of hypoxemia caused by multiple disease processes which include but are not limited to COVID, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), Pneumonia, Bronchitis, Pulmonary Disease (COPD), or Congestive Heart Failure (CHF).

Oxygen in the Air

Oxygen is limited in the long-range medical transport environment. AirCARE1’s fleet of Learjet aircraft act as an ICU unit in the air that is equivalent to a hospital room, however oxygen carrying capacity is limited as only a set amount of it is allowed onboard. Since the HFNC uses a blend of air and O2 to achieve flow rates, it requires less oxygen on board while simultaneously increasing oxygen flow rate up to 60 Liters per minute

How AirCARE1 provides HFNC in the Air

AirCARE1 has paired the sophisticated HAMILTON T1 ICU transport ventilator with the HAMILTON-H900 humidifier via a proprietary module that provides the same functionality as the HIFLOW devices utilized in the hospital setting. They use this innovative equipment to provide care for multiple patient modalities using both the high flow nasal canal, oxygen mask, and Amron International NIPPV Helmet.

About AirCARE1

AirCARE1 is an Air Ambulance and Medical Escort service provider headquartered in Albuquerque, NM. AirCARE1 also has additional bases in the Phoenix, AZ. and Melbourne, FL areas. Their company vision takes a different approach to medical air transport. This approach is founded on the belief that providing the highest level of medical attention, combined with compassion and a holistic approach to care will transform the flight experience for their patients. The vision and approach taken by AirCARE1 provides an important sense of comfort and well-being for patients and their family members throughout the medical transportation process.

Carestream Health is transforming and accelerating the way it develops and delivers AI applications for medical imaging that help improve patient care. The state-of-the-art initiative is based on Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) GreenLake for Machine Learning Operations (ML Ops). The machine-learning-optimized cloud service infrastructure makes it easier and faster to get started with ML/AI projects, and seamlessly scale them to production deployments.

“Carestream has been a leader in leveraging powerful AI technology to help improve image quality, optimize dose and increase workflow efficiency in medical imaging,” said Dharmendu Damany, Chief Technology Officer at Carestream. “Now we are accelerating the pace of our development by providing our industry-leading medical imaging scientists with the optimal AI platform/framework for their research. Our partnership with HPE and their industry leadership with HPE GreenLake Cloud Services gives us the framework to support the operationalization of AI to deliver more solutions that can help improve diagnosis and patient care.”

HPE GreenLake cloud services provide customers with a powerful foundation to drive digital transformation through an elastic as-a-service platform that can run on premises, at the edge or in a colocation facility. HPE GreenLake for ML Ops, one of a suite of cloud services offered by HPE, enables customers to deploy AI/ML workloads on HPE’s ML-optimized cloud services infrastructure. This HPE cloud service, powered by HPE Ezmeral and HPE Pointnext AI Services, is designed to address all aspects of the ML lifecycle from data preparation to model building, training, deployment, monitoring and collaboration.

Carestream’s partnership with HPE paves the way fortime-consuming local software updates to eventually be replaced by cloud hardware and service upgrades, enabling imaging facilities to evolve their medical imaging capabilities more quickly. When it becomes available in the future, artificial intelligence-as-a-service also has the potential to reduce the cost-of-entry to new features; and reduce solution costs. Carestream’s collaboration with HPE will impact medical imaging technology on a global scale, as Carestream’s X-ray platforms are in use across 140 countries, spanning over 100,000 pieces of equipment and 35 different hardware configurations.

“Delivering AI services and software updates through the cloud will allow medical imaging facilities and their patients to benefit from enhancements more quickly. In the future, they can seamlessly deploy them where their data resides and where they care for patients—whether it is at the micro edge, edge or cloud,” said Mr. Damany.

“Our partnership with Carestream, one of the worldwide leaders in the critical medical imaging space, closely aligns with HPE’s vision for innovation from edge-to-cloud, and provides cloud services to achieve outcome-driven digital transformations,” said Keith White, Senior Vice President and General Manager, HPE GreenLake Cloud Services. “It’s been so exciting working with Carestream to develop a scalable, next generation AI as a service platform that enables their continued leadership in helping to improve patient outcomes and provide impactful insights to their customers.”

The HPE servers include graphic processing units (GPUs) developed by NVIDIA, a key AI hardware partner in the project, enabling each server to tackle multiple imaging and analysis tasks simultaneously. HPE and NVIDIA technology also will facilitate federated learning—the aggregation of anonymized machine learning data across multiple provider facilities. Federated learning is expected to revolutionize healthcare research and development over the next decade, enabling researchers to increase diagnostic intelligence and automation without compromising patient privacy.

About Carestream Health

Carestream is a worldwide provider of medical imaging systems; X-ray imaging systems for non-destructive testing; and precision contract coating services for a wide range of industrial, medical, electronic and other applications—all backed by a global service and support network.

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the global edge-to-cloud platform as-a-service company that helps organizations accelerate outcomes by unlocking value from all of their data, everywhere. Built on decades of reimagining the future and innovating to advance the way people live and work, HPE delivers unique, open and intelligent technology solutions, with a consistent experience across all clouds and edges, to help customers develop new business models, engage in new ways, and increase operational performance.

At Google’s annual I/O developer conference , the company previewed its AI-powered dermatology assist tool, which is a web-based application. Users upload three well-lit images of the skin, hair or nail concern from different angles. The tool then asks a series of questions about the user’s skin type, how long they’ve had the issue and other symptoms that help the tool narrow down the possibilities.

The AI model analyzes this information and draws from its knowledge of 288 conditions to provide a list of possible matching conditions, according to Bui.

For each matching condition, the tool will show dermatologist-reviewed information and answers to commonly asked questions, along with similar matching images from the web. Users can either save their results, delete them or donate them to Google’s research efforts.

Users’ data are stored securely and encrypted in transit and at rest, Bui said. “Google doesn’t use the data to target ads,” she said.

It marks Google’s first consumer-facing medical device, but the company is currently not seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the technology, Bui said.

“This is currently not a clear-cut path for this technology” to receive FDA approval, she said.

The goal is to give users access to authoritative information so they can make a more informed decision about their next step, said Bui.

Bui, a physician, said many patients wait too long to see a doctor for a dermatologic condition. Bui said one of her patients detected a mole on her toe but felt fine and waited to get care before seeing a doctor who did not have expertise in dermatology.

“This patient lived two hours from the nearest dermatologist. So she drove two hours, got a skin biopsy and the mole biopsy came back as melanoma,” she said. “Skin diseases are an enormous global burden, and every day millions of people turn to Google to research their skin conditions.”

Two billion people worldwide suffer from dermatologic issues, but there’s a global shortage of specialists. While many people’s first step involves going to a Google search bar, it can be difficult to describe what you’re seeing on your skin through words alone.

It took three years of machine learning research and product development to build the AI-powered dermatologist assistant, according to Yuan Liu, Ph.D., technical lead on the project.

To date, Google has published several peer-reviewed papers that validate the AI model and more are in the works, according to a blog post.

In a study published in Nature last year, the AI system was shown to be as good as a dermatologist at identifying 26 skin conditions, and more accurate than the primary care physicians and nurses in the study.

A recent paper published in JAMA Network Open demonstrated that Google Health’s AI tool may help clinicians diagnose skin conditions more accurately in primary care practices, where most skin diseases are initially evaluated.

The new search tool will launch later this year in markets outside the U.S. Recently, the AI model that powers the tool passed clinical validation, and the tool has been CE marked as a Class I medical device in the European Union.

Health disparities can make building machine learning models challenging as the data can be biased, Liu said.

With this in mind, the Google Health team built the AI model to account for factors like age, sex, race and skin types—from pale skin that does not tan to brown skin that rarely burns, according to the blog post.

“We developed and fine-tuned our model with de-identified data encompassing around 65,000 images and case data of diagnosed skin conditions, millions of curated skin concern images and thousands of examples of healthy skin—all across different demographics,” Liu and Bui wrote in the post.

The tech giant has been pushing further into using AI technology for health and wellness. Google and sister company Verily worked together to develop a machine learning-enabled screening tool for diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of preventable blindness in adults.

More recently, Google moved into health tracking using smartphone cameras to monitor heart and respiratory rates. Google Health added new features to its Google Fit app that enables users to take their pulse just by using their smartphone’s camera.

And the tech giant has shown an interest in sleep health as its second-generation Nest Hub includes a sleep sensing feature that uses radar-based sleep tracking in addition to an algorithm for cough and snore detection. It marked Google’s first foray into the health and wellness space with its smart display products.

Staff are looking to make specialist visits more accessible, which could further improve patient satisfaction and lead to a faster and streamlined clinical process that may shorten length of stay and improve clinical outcome.

In March 2020, the number of new COVID-19 infections was rapidly increasing in Washington. With no vaccination or specific treatment on the horizon, Howard University Hospital, an academic medical center in the district, prepared for a major surge of COVID-19 patients.

Soon after the onset of the pandemic a racial disparity became clear. African Americans were disproportionately taking the toll of the infections and developed more serious and often fatal illness. With a large Black community in Washington, Howard University Hospital prepared for disproportionately more patients and more severely ill patients.

The hospital set up a tent to expand the emergency department and invested in major construction works to expand existing departments in preparation for a surge of up to 125% of its prior capacity.

Staffing new departments

“We had to deploy not only new beds, nurse call systems, oxygen lines and infection control solutions, we also had to prepare for staffing the new departments,” said Dr. Kevin Dawson, CIO at Howard University Hospital. “Many physicians were interested in returning from retirement. However, they were afraid of the risk of COVID-19 exposure while being onsite.

“Considering the advanced age of retired physicians, they face higher risk of developing more serious illness,” he continued. “Inpatient telemedicine seemed to be the perfect solution for solving this problem. By deploying telemedicine carts in the hospital, physicians could provide care remotely, irrespective of their location.”

Early in the pandemic, to minimize infection risk in the hospital, staff implemented a no visitation policy. Without access to their loved ones, patients felt alone and isolated. To solve this challenge and improve patient satisfaction the hospital purchased hospital-grade washable tablets for patients to communicate when in isolation rooms or when the hospital is closed to visitors.

“A third component of our plan was to improve our wireless network,” Dawson noted. “The opening of new departments and the deployment of telemedicine carts and tablets demanded better wireless connectivity.”

$882,000 from the FCC

At this time Howard University Hospital applied for and received a $881,958 grant from the FCC telehealth fund to purchase telemedicine carts and associated software licenses, tablets and network upgrades to deploy in-patient telemedicine services in the emergency department, intensive care units, and medical/surgical departments treating patients with and without COVID-19 symptoms, including remote video and voice consultation and treatment of all patients to reduce the possibility of transmission.

“During the search for vendors, their ability to ship and deploy their products and services fast was important, as we had to spend all funds by September,” Dawson explained. “Although the deadline was later extended, we were able to select the vendors and make all purchases by the earlier deadline.

“Cerner, our EHR vendor, helped us with the process,” he continued. “We purchased 20 telemedicine carts with high-resolution cameras and software from Amwell, 90 tablets from CyberNet, and relied on our IT infrastructure partner Advanced Computer Concepts to deploy new wireless network equipment.”

Parallel with deploying the technology, the hospital also evaluated the clinical and business processes of delivering inpatient telemedicine services. Staff addressed questions related to documentation of the visits, informed consent, government regulations, physician licensing and supervision of residents, and developed forms in the EHR.

Multi-way communication

“The telemedicine system currently is not integrated with other systems,” Dawson said. “Clinical documentation is performed within the same systems that would be used during in-person consultation. The telemedicine system allows for multi-way communication. If consented by the patient, a resident in training, interpreter or the patient’s family member can be part of a telemedicine visit.

“With the help of Amwell, we developed training programs for physicians and nurses,” he added. “These trainings are delivered weekly upon request. Labor and delivery and psychiatry were two departments with much interest. Telepsychiatry visits are offered at all locations, with the highest interest in the emergency department.”

One of the key goals with the program is to improve patient satisfaction. Between November and March, staff observed patient satisfaction scores increasing by 22-32%. Patients were surveyed by Press Ganey. One question asked patients to rate the hospital on a scale of one to 10. Patients were also asked whether they would recommend the hospital to others.

While the observed improvement is influenced by many other factors besides the deployment of the telemedicine program, staff believe that having access to a telemedicine solution and tablets contributed to the improved patient satisfaction scores.

Further improvements

“We currently are collecting satisfaction data with the telemedicine visits from patients and physicians,” Dawson said. “We’d like to use this data to further improve the program. Moreover, we are working on better penetration of the program in clinical areas where it is still underutilized.

“We believe that making specialist visits more accessible could further improve patient satisfaction and may accelerate the clinical process by shortening the time between specialist consultations requested and delivered,” he concluded. “Faster and streamlined clinical process may shorten length of stay and improve clinical outcome.”