Twenty years after California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana, a further vote was passed that permits the recreational use of marijuana in the state for any adult over the age of 21. Proposition 64 comes into effect from January 2018.

People currently in possession of a cannabis card are genuinely concerned that their own particular needs might now be overlooked and that the recreational use of marijuana will give it a bad name, thereby making it more difficult for patients to access and consume. They wonder how their rights will be affected and if, indeed, they will still need a California medical marijuana card. There is still a lot of uncertainty as to how this new law will play out – especially as each locality has the right to set its own rules.

We firmly believe that medical marijuana is here to stay and that it’s vital that you hang on to your cannabis card and renew it annually as required. With your card, you will always have access to the marijuana that helps your own particular condition, and access also to help and advice. Recreational use of the drug is something entirely different.

Even with recreational marijuana legalized in California, medical marijuana is here to stay.

Another reason why we believe it’s essential for you to hold onto your card, or to apply for a medical marijuana card online if you don’t already have one, is that recreational use will not be allowed in public. Card-carrying medical marijuana patients, however, are currently permitted and will continue to be permitted to smoke medical marijuana in most places where tobacco smoking is allowed. Furthermore, recreational users will be limited to growing just six marijuana plants at a time on their property, whereas cannabis card holders will still be able to cultivate up to 100 square feet of the plant.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, if you’re a card holder, you will always have access to medical experts to discuss the best dosage and strain for you and to contact for advice.

This is where telemedicine really comes into its own for medical marijuana patients. You may not realize that you’re actually using telemedicine in your lives at the moment! A short chat with your doctor or specialist on the phone, or your X-rays or scans being transmitted from the hospital to your doctor, are just two examples of how telemedicine is being used today.

If you are already in possession of a medical marijuana card, then one way that advances in telemedicine could work for you is that you could arrange a Skype call with your doctor rather than seeing him or her in person. You might not feel like leaving the house, or maybe the thought of sitting in a waiting room with a lot of people freaks you out – so to be able to speak to your doctor privately, but still face-to-face, without leaving your home has got to be attractive. If your doctor is flexible, he/she can schedule this call at a time to suit you.

Another obvious way you could use telemedicine is simply by phoning in your medical marijuana order to your local registered dispensary and arranging to pick it up at your convenience. It will be ready for you, so there’ll be no hanging around or waiting in line.

Telemedicine can help you procure a medical marijuana card stress-free.

If you don’t already possess a cannabis card and feel that you would qualify for one, then the best way to acquire one is to apply for a medical marijuana card online, via MMJ Recs. Application is made easy, thanks to telemedicine! You simply have to complete a standard medical form online and upload your relevant medical documents. You will then be contacted by a medical marijuana specialist, who will carry out an evaluation – either over the phone or via Skype. The physician will ask you questions about your condition and medical history and will also want to know why you think taking medical marijuana will help you. You will be advised as to the best strain and the appropriate amount for your condition and all benefits and associated risks will be made clear to you. You will also have the opportunity to ask any questions you wish. This private, one-to-one consultation is very reassuring and non-threatening. Once approved, your medical marijuana card will be sent to you in the mail. No doubt, in the not-too-distant future, such will be the advances in telemedicine that a card will be dispatched to you electronically!

It’s clear to the relevant experts that medical marijuana is definitely here to stay, despite the new legislation. It is to your advantage to have and to hold onto your cannabis card. Telemedicine plays a vital role in the application mechanism, streamlining the process and making it easier for you to deal with if you can’t face leaving the house or being in a public area with other people. Once you have your card, you can still access the various professionals via phone or Skype for advice or to place an order.

The rapid and on-going advances in telemedicine are only going to help medical marijuana card holders further, as they enable more and more things to be done remotely rather than in a person-to-person situation. Watch this space!

The advent of hormonal contraception completely revolutionized the lives of women in the Western world. No longer reliant on unpredictable forms of natural birth control, women were able to take control of their families, lives, and careers by using hormones to instill formal family planning. While the types of birth control have become more numerous as time has progressed, the contraceptive pill is still the most popular form of hormonal birth control in the United States. So how do contraception and telemedicine go together?

As birth control has modernized, so have the methods that women use to obtain it. Telemedicine has truly revolutionized patient care in general, but for people who are looking for contraception, it’s the perfect method. Telemedicine can be defined as the usage of telecommunications technology to deliver medical or diagnostic advice. It has been around since telecommunications technology was invented, but is experiencing a huge surge since the introduction of smartphones. New technology means that it’s easier than ever for patients to access healthcare.

Obtaining the contraceptive pill can be a drawn-out and inconvenient process for a lot of women. Firstly, you need to visit your doctor and answer a lot of questions, then you get your blood pressure taken and you get your prescription. The kicker is that you have to go back to the doctor every time for a repeat prescription, shelling out the extra money just for a five-minute blood pressure check and a new piece of paper.

The combination of contraception and telemedicine is perfect for busy women.

This just isn’t the case when it comes to the contraception and telemedicine combination. All of the hassle is taken away for patients. Instead of waiting and paying top dollar, you simply log on via your phone and the rest is taken care of. Usually, you will make an appointment or simply “walk in” to an online clinic. When you get through to a doctor, you’ll speak to them via the camera on your phone. If it’s your first time getting the contraceptive pill, they’ll ask you some questions about your medical history and if any women in your family have suffered from certain illnesses. If you’re deemed suitable, your prescription can be sent to your pharmacy, where they’ll take your blood pressure. When you need a repeat script, just log back on, request one, and then go to the pharmacy for the script.

The pairing of contraception and telemedicine is beneficial for many reasons. Firstly, you’re saving money, as most telemedical patients do. As telemedical doctors don’t have the same overheads as traditional doctors, their appointments are usually far cheaper. As well as that, telemedical doctors do not expect you to be beholden to traditional appointment times. If you’re a busy, professional woman, it’s unlikely that you’ll have the time to take to go to a doctor’s appointment for contraception. Telemedicine is actively putting the power back in your hands by allowing you to access health care at a time and place that suits you.

Usually, you can attend an appointment from any location, once you have privacy. The only place that you’ll need to travel to is your pharmacy. This is another bonus in getting contraception via a telemedical doctor. If you have a spare moment while you’re catching up on your favorite Netflix show, you can log on and renew your contraceptive prescription. It’s the easiest thing in the world and way more convenient than schlepping across town to visit your doctor. Who has time to see a doctor in-person when you can do it from your couch?

Your telemedical professional and pharmacist can work closely together to deliver your contraception.

One of the best things about this method is the way in which your telemedical doctor and your in-person pharmacist can work together. While your doctor will give you all of the advice that you need and will send your prescription straight to your pharmacist, your pharmacist is there to answer any questions that you may have about the medication itself, as well as administer your blood pressure test. Pharmacists are highly trained individuals and are used to helping patients ask questions about their medication. If you have any concerns about the medication you’ve been prescribed, you can speak to your pharmacist and then go back to your doctor for a different prescription and to ask further questions if you need.

All this considered, it’s clear that contraception and telemedicine are the perfect pairing. Where else will you be able to access life-changing medication from the comfort of your own home, while also being able to ask all of the relevant questions of a qualified medical professional? Everything about modern technology serves to make our lives easier, so why not bring that philosophy into your medical life? Empower yourself and make your life more convenient by pairing contraception and telemedicine. You won’t regret it for a minute!

Over recent years, the service known as telemedicine has grown exponentially and it is now very much an accepted part of modern-day medicine. For some folk, it’s probably crept up on you and perhaps taken you by surprise; for others, telemedicine may have been part of your life for some time now. But what is the history of telemedicine?

Let’s look at the definition of telemedicine first up. Succinctly put, it’s the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients via telecommunication technology. So we know that telemedicine delivers healthcare services remotely via telecommunications. But what are these services exactly, and what is the purpose? They include assessments, consultations, scans, results, etc. and allow healthcare professionals to evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients without actually seeing them in person.

Telecommunication, also known as telecom, simply means the exchange of information by electronic means. These electronic means – or information transmitting technologies – include telephones, fiber optics, satellites, microwave communications, radio, TV, the internet, and telegraphs.

Quite a lot to digest and understand if you’re not familiar with telemedicine! So let’s now take a look at the full history of telemedicine that has led to these fascinating developments.

The history of telemedicine has encompassed many advancements in technology, communications and medicine.

In the early 1900s, a little invention known as the radio was gaining prominence in many different fields, ranging from the obvious one – entertainment – to the perhaps less self-evident one of national defense. In 1924, a Radio News magazine published a sketch showing a doctor speaking with a patient via a video call, under the headline “The Radio Doctor – Maybe!” An incredible vision from a journalist about future technology, which would take another 90 years to be realized!

The world’s first use of electronic transfer for medical purposes took place in Pennsylvania in the 1940s. Radiology images were sent 24 miles from one town to another via the telephone line. A Canadian doctor took this a step further in the 1950s, building what was known as a teleradiology system, which was used in and around Montreal.

With the advent of motion pictures and the advancement of film technology, it wasn’t long before people started talking about introducing video medicine. It came about in 1959, at the University of Nebraska, where a two-way television was set up so that information could be transmitted to medical students around the campus. A short five years later, they actually linked with a hospital and carried out video consultations.

As you might imagine, telemedicine was initially considered important mainly for rural communities without any direct access to local medics. But by the early 1960s, it was being used in urban communities also, and to great effect. In 1967, in a pioneering move, The University of Miami School of Medicine partnered with their local fire department and set up a system where they could transmit electrocardiographic rhythms via radio to the Jackson Memorial Hospital so that they were able to give and receive advice during rescue situations. This innovation paved the way for further research into the possibilities of telemedicine.

One lot of professionals who were surprisingly able to benefit from these advances in telemedicine were astronauts! Yep – the technology even reached outer space as far back as the 60s/70s! X-rays, ECGs, and other medical information could be transmitted to a hospital for analysis, meaning the astronauts had access to medical care while in orbit.

Projects like this spawned an even bigger interest in telemedicine, resulting in further research and development over the following decades.

These days, many medical services are just a phone call, message or teleconference away.

It’s interesting to note that the world and history of telemedicine encompasses a large spectrum. On the obvious, and least technological, end of this spectrum is the familiar telephone consultation between a patient and a medic. You could include here also the basic radio communication between emergency medical professionals and hospitals. At the far end of the spectrum, then, you have amazing things such as telesurgery, where a surgeon is able to guide robotic instruments in the performance of surgery at a remote site. Sounds pretty mind-blowing, doesn’t it? It’s still largely experimental at this stage, but surely not that far off becoming commonplace.

In between these two extremes of telemedicine, you have a bundle of other functions, such as video conferencing for diagnostic purposes and a whole array of data transmission possibilities between medical professionals and hospitals.

Two things propelling the ongoing research and advancement of telemedicine are concerns about access to health care and advice in remote locations, and the ever-increasing cost of medicine. Currently, many of our medical centers are looking at reduced revenues, coupled with exclusion from locally managed care networks, so they are very keen to explore the multi-faceted world of telemedicine to see how it might reduce their costs at the same time as advancing their services.

Telemedicine is becoming widely accepted by patients and professionals alike. Today, more than half of all U.S. hospitals have a telemedicine program, and research shows that most patients are happy to use it. Insurance companies, too, are coming on board with the concept. Over the last few years, more companies have started to offer telemedicine as an option on health plans, and people are beginning to use this service in their droves.

So although telemedicine appears to be a relatively new concept, it has actually been around for nearly 100 years now, albeit in a very basic form initially. There’s a way to go with it yet, as the potential is huge, but it’s obvious that telemedicine already has many uses, is here to stay, and could be the answer to many a problem.

In an age where digital devices are becoming more and more prevalent, many tasks are becoming simpler for us thanks to our new tech-based companions. While most of these tasks include the non-essentials such as texting, learning languages and checking our bank balance, this new technology includes plenty of important applications as well. We can use our smartphone to keep track of our heart rate, measure how much exercise we’re getting per day, and even check in with our doctor. The latter is called telemedicine, and although it utilizes the most modern devices on the market (smartphones, tablets, etc.), it’s a practice that has been around for decades.

Telemedicine is essentially defined as the utilization of clinical services through telecommunications. For a large number of years, this meant a telephone; but recently, with the light speed development of communications technology, telemedicine has found a whole new place in the world, and people up and down the country are utilizing it for medical purposes. This has a number of advantages. One of the most obvious is that it benefits people who are either physically unable to get to their doctors, or live too far away from one to avail of it consistently. Take for example a handicap parking permit; a patient who requires one of these essential tools for the disabled is often not able to visit a doctor’s office to get one. Telemedicine solves this issue by letting the patient confer with a doctor from the comfort of their home. This is just one concrete example of how telemedicine is making medical practice more accessible to people who need it.

Many parents use telemedicine to care for their children with lightening-quick results.

When it comes to the health of their children, many parents rightly refuse to compromise. When kids get sick, they react differently than adults, and the younger they are, the harder they find it to express their symptoms in words. This in turn makes parents more likely to seek medical care as soon as possible.  There’s something reassuring about going to see a living, breathing doctor and having them check your child for symptoms. However, parents should definitely consider using telemedicine to care for their children as it comes with a whole host of benefits.

Chief among these benefits is the ability to confer with medical professionals straight away. As mentioned above, parents want a lightning fast response when their children are struck down with sickness. With telemedicine, you don’t even have to leave your house. You can start up your laptop or your tablet, and very soon be in consultation with a medical professional. This is especially applicable for families who don’t live near a doctor’s office; it can save precious time and also provide a baseline peace of mind for parents whose children suffer from a chronic disorder or are prone to sickness.

If you’re a parent, you could consider using telemedicine to treat your children’s minor ailments.

Going hand in hand with this valuable timesaving feature is the fact that, on a whole, telemedicine costs much less than in-person clinic visits. This is great news for families who might be hard pressed to come up with the doctor’s fee every time their child needs to visit the clinic; it can can dramatically reduce these costs, as well as negating any travel costs associated with doctor’s visits. On the other side of the line, telemedicine also reduces hospital and clinic costs; doctor’s can get through more patients in the day, and the use of online technology serves to reduce admin costs associated with in-person visits. Telemedicine can also reduce non-necessary ER visits but getting symptoms checked out at home first, to ascertain whether an ER trip is required.

Children are often referred to specialists to get to the bottom of their particular health issues, and telemedicine can also help on this front. Traditionally, with any ailment that require specialized treatment, a primary care physician is merely the gatekeeper for a referral. Also, as a patient, you are shackled to the nearest specialist to your home or local area. With telemedicine, you can seek out the best specialist possible for your child, because the limits of proximity are removed. For patients in rural areas, this is especially beneficial, and reduces waiting times if the specialist in question is catering for many separate patients across a large area.

It might seem like a big leap when compared to the tried-and-tested clinic visits, but studies show that 74% of patients prefer easy access to their healthcare, and have come to fully embrace telemedicine. When it comes to children’s health, no risk is worth taking; the practise of telemedicine is one that can revolutionise the way America looks at healthcare, and comes with many benefits for patients and medical professionals alike. Ultimately, telemedicine is only going to become more prevalent as the technology evolves to support it. Jumping on this particular bandwagon as soon as possible will prove advantageous for patients (and parents) up and down the United States!

Although it sounds like a relatively new phenomenon, telemedicine has been around in some form or another since the invention of the telephone. The focal idea behind the movement, since its inception, has been to provide patients living in rural areas, or patients that are physically incapacitated, with access to top-level healthcare via the medium of telecommunications. While it was implemented successfully in decades previous, telemedicine was regarded as a fringe service, with the main bulk of patients opting to visit their doctor in person. However, the relentless progression of digital technology has made the service more relevant than ever, with telemedicine poised to become a major force in the future of the healthcare industry.

The smartphone is the main herald of this technological advancement, and has cemented itself as a necessity for modern day living. We do most of everything on our phones these days, from hailing a taxi to checking the weather. GPS co-ordination is a perfect example of how dependent we’ve become on having instantaneous access to this progressive technology; can you imagine going to meet a friend at a new bar or coffee shop and not being able to whip out your phone and check where it is? It seems crazy to operate in 2017 without the aid of Google Maps, and as future generations become more and more integrated with digital technology, this reliance will only become more pervasive.

Smartphone apps have revolutionized telemedicine to such a degree that we practically carry our doctors around in our pockets…or on our wrists!

Apps have revolutionized many different aspects of our lives, in many beneficial ways. There are apps to take seriously and apps to pass the time; each sector has its big hitters. One of the most positive places they’ve had an effect is the arena of telemedicine, where they are being integrated to the healthcare system in increasingly important ways. No matter where you are in the world, as long as you have a smartphone, you have access to a doctor. Imagine you’re out hiking in the wilds and get bitten by a suspicious looking insect; you don’t know what breed it is, and are worried the bite might be dangerous. You can simply open your smartphone and be chatting with a real doctor in mere minutes. Or imagine you’re snowbound for a few days and a member of your family is developing worrying symptoms; in days past, you’d have to wait until you had access to a physical doctor. These days, you can see one through your smartphone or tablet.

Doctors can even prescribe medication over the internet, through telemedicine apps. Take medical marijuana for instance, a previously controversial treatment which is now gaining legal traction in the U.S., having been legalized in twenty nine states so far; you can simply log on to a site such as MMJ Recs and get outfitted with a medical marijuana identification card, so you can start availing of the medicine for your specific condition. The possibilities of telemedicine are endless, and will only keep growing as technology progresses to accommodate them.

There are a lot of benefits to consider around telemedicine, and even more in the competitive app arena. Firstly, they make healthcare extremely convenient for everyone, no matter where you live. Previously, people who lived in rural areas or who were incapacitated had to travel miles to see their primary care physician, and probably even further to see a local specialist. Telemedicine removes the distance barrier, and ensures everyone has equal access to healthcare. Secondly, it’s reducing health costs across the board, on both sides of the line. Everyone knows the medical industry is an expensive game, but telemedicine is reducing costs for the patients and doctors, by allowing consultations to take less time. This frees up the doctor’s day, and also allows them to charge less to their patients, as well as negate any travel costs.

Telemedicine allows those who can’t get to a doctor regularly to have 24/7 medical access.

Another striking benefit comes from the app model itself. There are millions of apps out there that do so many different things, but competition in each sector is fierce. Healthcare apps are no different; thousands of them battle it out on the App Store and Google Play for browsers’ attention and ultimately downloads. This has a leveling effect, introducing competition to a sector which generally isn’t renowned for it, equaling better results at a lower cost for patients. As it stands, telemedicine is on the cusp of becoming a huge revolution in the healthcare industry, a revolution which is sure to happen in the next couple of years. It’s undoubtedly going to be a positive force in people’s lives, producing better results at a fast pace for a lower cost. All in all, apps are a perfect fit for telemedicine, and provide a fertile soil for its future growth. As digital technology is integrated more and more into our daily lives, telemedicine is set to become a regularity for residents all across the US.

As digital technology continues to grow more and more powerful, our society is shifting to better help meet our needs. Despite countless medical advances, the health system has remained largely unchanged in terms of the way it operates; patients have something wrong with them, so they schedule a meeting with a doctor, go and confer with them, and then avail of some kind of treatment. It’s been this way for centuries, even if the methods of treating illnesses have progressed incalculably. However, with the advent of telemedicine, the method that patients use to interact with their doctors has changed for the better.

Telemedicine refers to the practise of clinically consulting with your doctor from your home, using a telecommunications device. The idea is not new, and has essentially been around since the invention of the telephone; however, with the advancement of digital technology and the prevalence of smartphones, tablets and other powerful handheld gadgets, telemedicine is in a position to take a giant leap forward in the healthcare arena. But how it exactly will it benefit everyone? Here’re five reasons why telemedicine could improve your health.

1 – It’s Fast

Because telemedicine doesn’t require you to visit a doctor in person, it can be an extremely fast way of detecting signs of critical conditions like a stroke or a heart attack, and can be used to advise patients on whether they need to take a trip to the emergency room or not. Also, it’s fast in another way; you can get referred to specialists quicker, and the general practise of contacting your doctor takes much less time out of your day, leaving you to focus on other elements. Previously, for some people, a trip to the doctor’s office would constitute a large portion of a given day; the speed of telemedicine allows you to get the healthcare you need at a much quicker pace.

2 – It Can Get You Access to Better Specialists

Speaking of specialists, telemedicine can help patients, especially patients in remote areas, access the best specialists possible. Traditionally, you were bound to whatever local specialist was available for your specific condition; with telemedicine, your local health care practitioner can recommend the best specialists from all over the country, allowing you to choose form the wealth of experience they offer. There’s no need to be tied down to the local specialists anymore; telemedicine is opening up whole new doors for patients, which can only improve the country’s general health.

Telemedicine can improve your health simply by guaranteeing that you get to hear from a specialist.

3 – It Helps You To Not Put Off That Doctor’s Visit

Let’s face it, doctor’s visits are extremely easy things to put off, but they really shouldn’t be. Deep down, everyone knows that they should listen to their body and immediately go to a doctor when they instinctively know something’s wrong; however, very few of us actually act on that instinct immediately, sometimes with catastrophic results. For some reason, we always find a way to convince ourselves either that we’re fine, or that we’ll book that appointment tomorrow. Telemedicine takes the ‘event’ feeling out of a doctor’s visit, and allows us to incorporate it seamlessly into our routines. It helps us to not put off that nagging feeling we should see a doctor, which is essential to maintaining a healthy disposition.

4 – Patients Can Get Access to Treatments From Home

If a patient happens to be disabled, it might be incredibly tough for them to physically reach a doctor’s office, let alone see one on a regular basis to avail of the healthcare they need. Even something as simple as a handicap parking permit might be out of reach for a disabled person, despite it being a valuable tool for them to improve their life with. It’s not just physically disabled patients either; mentally disabled patients might be incapacitated and not capable of benefiting from a variety of treatments.

Through telemedicine, these patients can avail of progressive new therapies like Emotional Support Animals, all from the comfort and convenience of their homes.

Why visit the doctor when you can get a consultation on your phone?

5 – It’s the Way of the Future

As digital technology continues to evolve, telemedicine will continue to evolve with it. 2017 was a big year for the advancement of the healthcare industry, and 2018 looks to be no smaller. Telemedicine has already proven its worth in a variety of ways, and all signs point to it being rolled out all over the country in the coming months and years. From helping patients with chronic conditions manage it themselves to providing patients in rural areas with reliable, responsive healthcare access, telemedicine is a major benefit to patients everywhere. In order to be in the best position to benefit from this progressive leap in technology, start investigating if telemedicine can help you right now, and join the wave of digitally-involved healthcare.