Many medical professionals, including cannabis recommending physicians, place pamphlets or brochures containing medical information around their offices, hoping that their patients can and will make use of them to educate themselves on important medical issues. 

While these practices are well-intended, they fail to take into consideration both the likelihood that their patients will actually pick up and attempt to read the materials, as well as the capability of many of their patients to do so.

According to ProLiteracy, more than 30 million adults in the United States cannot read or write above a third-grade level. In addition, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, 41% of adult immigrants score at or below the lowest level of English literacy. This calls into question the methods, and media, that physicians are using to educate their patients about their medical conditions and their proposed treatments and interventions. An article published in American Journal of Public Health stated that low literacy is responsible for over $230 billion a year in health care costs because almost half of Americans cannot read at a high enough level to comprehend medical information provided by their doctor.

Medical cannabis is a growing market, with an estimated 1 in 7 Americans admitting to using cannabis in 2017, and 44% of Americans saying they have used over their lifetime. Medical cannabis is now legal in 33 states, with recreational cannabis being legal in 10 at the writing of this article. With medical cannabis being increasingly available across the country, patients will increasing need to be educated about the medical cannabis they are recommended and how it will affect their physiology, no matter what their literacy level, and their care will be improved as a result.  The endocannabinoid system is intricate, introducing medical cannabis into the body can literally change one’s physiology and affect mental health. Cannabis education also embraces cannabis safety; educating people on methods of consumption, dosing, and how to intervene if the effects of cannabis are too strong.

So what can bridge the gap between the growing medical marijuana market and the challenges of educating its customers?  The Cannabis Medical Network (CMN) .  CMN provides place-based digital signage free to medical offices as a method to educate patients about medical cannabis. Our exclusive programming includes videos that explain how medical cannabis affects certain medical conditions, tutorials on how to cook with cannabis, and how-to’s on making your own cannabis-infused beauty products.

Place-based digital signage is a proven solution that meets cannabis patients at exactly the right time and place: in their doctor’s office, in a curious space about medical cannabis, and ready to have a conversation about cannabis and their health. CMN’s programming is conveniently placed in the waiting rooms of physicians’ offices so that patients are armed with topics and questions to discuss with their doctor. This approach not only improves patient literacy about cannabis, but it helps the doctor ensure that their patients enter their examination rooms with a baseline of literacy on medical cannabis. 

Patients of all literacy levels can access the information about medical cannabis that is being presented, because the creation of our materials takes into account the literacy gap America is facing. Our videos are high quality, attractive and informative, and work to bridge the gap between the medical understanding of cannabis and the patients’ understanding of how it will affect them.

CMN is the only approved patient education program by American Academy Cannabis Physicians.CMN works with cannabis physicians to help them improve patient literacy while providing the best possible medical cannabis support there is.