The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a trend in healthcare toward the use of telemedicine, allowing patients to confer with doctors and clinicians through digital communication channels such as video chat or FaceTime. While the pandemic no longer has the country in its grip, the trend has continued, including the area of medical cannabis telemedicine.

Patients use telemedicine to confer with doctors on the results of routine tests or seek advice on medical issues. It’s especially effective for those in rural areas who face long drives to visit a physician’s office.

Increasingly, telemedicine also is used to meet with doctors on the use of medical cannabis. A telemedicine platform called NuggMD has emerged as one of the biggest companies in this area, recently starting its service in Louisiana.

In a news release about adding the new state to its services, NuggMD reported that since its founding in 2015, the online service has helped provide one million patients access to medical cannabis in almost half the states in the country.

Medical Cannabis Telemedicine Available in Many States

NuggMD is built on the idea that “every human being has the right to explore the benefits of medical cannabis.”  The company now offers its services in 22 states. This includes large states such as California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois and New Jersey.

The company builds on the spread of medical marijuana legalization across the country by offering the convenience of telemedicine. The company’s platform allows people in California, for example, to get a marijuana medical card in a matter of minutes, according to the company’s website.

While other medical cannabis telemedicine companies have emerged in recent years, NuggMD ranks among the most successful. The 100% online service offers same-day appointments with doctors for evaluations and requires no payment unless the patient is approved for a medical marijuana card.

How Medical Cannabis Telemedicine Works

Many medical cannabis users may not know that the law allows them to confer with doctors about medical marijuana via remote communications. NuggMD provides a platform that facilitates these communications. The platform is available from  8 a.m. until  10 p.m., seven days a week.

The service is designed to make it as simple and straightforward as possible to get a medical marijuana card. The platform connects patients with doctors who have signed up with the system. Once approved for the medical cannabis program, the patient’s doctor can deliver a recommendation for treatment as well as instructions for what the patient must do to register with the state’s system.

The NuggMD platform currently operates in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.