Pathway Health

Your business is quickly 
expanding. Why is now the right time for Pathway Health’s offerings?

Chronic pain is a huge social and economic problem that directly affects one in five Canadians, and this number is only increasing as the population ages. Patients suffering from chronic pain have very limited access to specialists to help them deal with their condition, with wait times ranging from one and three years, depending on what part of the country they’re in. We couldn’t imagine a better time for us to establish a network of pain clinics across the country to help deal with this difficult situation. And we also see ourselves serving a valuable role in helping the pharmacy companies prepare for the anticipated changes to the Cannabis Act later this year as cannabis health products become much more available to the general public.

You’re one of the largest providers of chronic-pain services in the country offering several services — clinical, telemedicine, and products. In terms of clinical, Pathway Health boasts the biggest provincial Ministry of Health out-of-hospital pain centre in Canada. What sets your clinics apart from other clinics?

I can think of a number of things that set us apart from other clinics, but if I were to narrow it down, I would say it’s our ability to provide timely access to trained pain specialists who themselves have access, through our facility, to leading interdisciplinary treatment modalities and technologies that are not available in most other locations.

When it comes to telemedicine, you are the biggest chronic-pain telehealth network in the country, and we know with COVID, more and more people want 
to be seen by doctors virtually. How does this service help your patients who use medicinal cannabis?

By being able to connect with our physicians and supporting healthcare staff through telemedicine, our medical cannabis patients can avoid the risk, time, and costs associated with a visit to an actual physical location. Unlike some of the interventional services, we offer — where the patient must show up in the clinic to receive their treatment — our medical cannabis patients can benefit from the convenience of telemedicine with no impact on the level of service they receive.

You also have initiatives with pharmacies you’re working with so far on product distribution. Why did you decide to get into the product-development category and how does this ultimately help patients?

We actually have three initiatives with the pharmacy companies including: cannabis education and certification for pharmacists; becoming their referral partner for their customers looking for treatment options for their chronic pain, including medical cannabis; and helping the pharmacies develop a line of cannabis health products that most experts believe will be sold through Canadian retail pharmacy locations within the next 12 months.

For patients, we recognize that those living with chronic pain consume a significant number of products to support their often difficult lifestyle and that we would be missing an opportunity to help them by not providing them easy access to these specialized products and services through their local pharmacy. By working directly with the pharmacies, we are extending our reach to new patients who often make frequent trips to their local pharmacies for other items such as prescription medicines. We are also in discussions with some of our pharmacy partners regarding a harm-
reduction program that could potentially help some of their patients who may be dealing with opioid abuse. By working directly with the pharmacies on this initiative and extending our reach on a national scale, we could perhaps play a role in bringing down the number of opioid-abuse deaths every year.