Use of electronic medical records to monitor the safe and effective prescribing of medicinal cannabis: is it feasible?

Abstract

Background: General practitioners are well positioned to contribute to the pharmacovigilance of medical cannabis via the general practice electronic medical record (EMR). The aim of this research is to interrogate de-identified patient data from the Patron primary care data repository for reports of medicinal cannabis to ascertain the feasibility of using EMRs to monitor medicinal cannabis prescribing in Australia. Methods: EMR rule-based digital phenotyping of 1 164 846 active patients from 109 practices was undertaken to investigate reports of medicinal cannabis use from September 2017 to September 2020. Results: Eighty patients with 170 prescriptions of medicinal cannabis were identified in the Patron repository. Reasons for prescription included anxiety, multiple sclerosis, cancer, nausea, and Crohn's disease. Nine patients showed symptoms of a possible adverse event, including depression, motor vehicle accident, gastrointestinal symptoms, and anxiety. Conclusions: The recording of medicinal cannabis effects in the patient EMR provides potential for medicinal cannabis monitoring in the community. This is especially feasible if monitoring were to be embedded into general practitioner workflow.