SANA Healthcare will from today be known as Script Assist after the company’s innovative platform which provides clinicians with everything they need to prescribe medical cannabis independently from their existing private clinic.
The team at Sana have been developing the technology behind the scenes to help solve some of the problems they’ve identified doctors, private practices and patients are facing when it comes to prescribing medical cannabis. With the Script Assist platform now live and already being used by clinicians in the UK, the company wants to focus all their efforts on their problem-solving tech solution.
Script Assist and its paired patient app helps guide clinicians and patients through the prescribing process, giving doctors the confidence to prescribe cannabis-based medicines both ethically and safely. It includes governance and risk management measures, whilst also giving doctors practical tools for issuing prescriptions. Patients who can download the app can log their symptoms, allowing their doctors to track their medical progress in real time, as well as find a prescribing specialist through Script Assist’s partnership with Cannabis Directory.
Script Assist is the brain-child of MedTech entrepreneur and former BBC Junior Apprentice winner Arjun Rajyagor, and Dr Ilan Lieberman, a specialist in pain management. Arjun was inspired to develop a technical solution to the problems with medical cannabis prescription following his own mother’s battle with chronic pain.
As a pain clinician, Dr Ilan Lieberman faced the same challenges, but from a different angle. After becoming aware of the existing body of research for medical cannabis and its benefits for pain, Dr Lieberman knew he had patients who would benefit, but couldn’t find a way to prescribe it to them from his existing private practice. Combining his point of view as a doctor with Arjun’s as a carer and family member, they developed Script Assist, a safe prescription platform, free from the restrictions of the clinic model.
“Today is the culmination of years of hard work and I’m proud to be re-branding Sana Healthcare as Script Assist, our flagship platform that I’m sure will have a huge impact on cannabis prescribing in the UK”, Arjun Rajyagor said. “It’s not hard to see that clinicians are facing barriers to prescribing medical cannabis. Of the tens of thousands eligible to prescribe, there’s only around 0.25% actually doing so in the nearly 5 years since medical cannabis was legalised. So we asked them, why? We listened to their concerns around confidence, governance and a lack of understanding, and came up with a solution. With Script Assist, we’ve streamlined the medical cannabis prescribing process, so doctors can feel confident about the practicalities of prescribing it, and focus on their patients.”
The online portal gives UK specialists everything they need to prescribe, providing a step by step guide, complaint with the latest GMC, NICE and NHS regulations. It allows doctors to connect with new or existing patients, provides a data-led formulary to select the right cannabis-based products and allows them to manage and track their patient’s symptoms in real time. Medications will be safely dispensed to patients and new prescription cases can be reviewed by a multidisciplinary team to make sure they’re safe, ethical and appropriate. Script Assist is also an important resource for patients, who can download the app to learn more about medical cannabis and find a suitable doctor.
Dr Ilan Leiberman said: “Working as a pain clinician, I’m always looking for the best and safest treatment possible for my patients. I know many other clinicians have found themselves in my predicament – I wanted to prescribe medical cannabis, but I didn’t want to join a cannabis clinic. I wanted a simple way to monitor my patients’ symptoms as they used these medicines and support to make sure I was following all regulations and guidelines. This is what Arjun and I have created, an effective and easy to use solution to these barriers of prescribing.”
After its rebrand, the team at Script Assist say they’re focused on raising awareness of their new software and increasing safe, ethical and data-led prescribing in the UK. Arjun, as Script Assist Founder, explained: “We look forward to supporting even more patients, clinicians and private practices as we move forward as Script Assist.”
