Medical Marijuana Academic Clinical Research Center (ACRC)

Christopher Chabris & Michelle Meyer

• Beliefs by patients and clinicians about MMJ likely impact health and the patient-clinician relationships. (Do clinicians judge patients who use or request MMJ?)
• This project uses behavioral science methods to elicit potentially sensitive beliefs by patients and providers about MMJ.
• The knowledge gained may inform methods for managing demand for MMJ, conducting meaningful MMJ informed consent processes, and eliciting honest patient reports about use.

Brian Piper 

• There is a chasm between the general public’s view that MMJ is harmless and the available evidence that MMJ effectively treats various qualifying conditions. 
• This project will use an established index to evaluate the level of evidence that supports each condition that has been approved for MMJ using existing state and national data.

Vanessa Troiani & Antoinette DiCriscio

• Children with autism and epilepsy are approved to have parents administer MMJ, but little is known about therapeutic benefits, behavioral symptoms treated, and medication interactions.
• This project will evaluate pediatric use of MMJ using quantitative and qualitative methods and establish a workflow to enable pediatric providers to document MMJ consistently.
• This work will establish current documented use in Geisinger pediatric patients and benefit future study of associations with therapeutic and harmful outcomes. 

Eric Wright & Brian Piper 

• Describes the prevalence of documented medical marijuana or recreational marijuana in discrete fields (diagnostic codes, social history) of the EHR (2013- 04/2022).
• Describes patient level characteristics including comorbidities and prescription drug use in study population.
• Develops a chart review rubric and documentation procedure that systematically characterizes marijuana use from EHR data.
• Identifies characteristics that influence EHR marijuana documentation using semi-structured interviews with providers.