Documenting cannabis use in primary care: a descriptive cross-sectional study using electronic medical record data in Alberta, Canada

BMC Research Notes

Research Note

Ashley Cornect-Benoit¹  Stephanie Garies²  Lori Montgomery³  Boglarka Soos⁴  Neil Drummond⁵  Brian Forst⁶  Donna Manca⁶  Kimberley Duerksen⁶  Heather Sharpe⁷  Katherine Rittenbach⁸ 

[1]Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

[2]Department of Family Medicine, G012 Health Sciences Centre, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, T2N 4N1, Calgary, AB, Canada

[3]Department of Family Medicine, G012 Health Sciences Centre, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, T2N 4N1, Calgary, AB, Canada

[4]Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

[5]Department of Family Medicine, G012 Health Sciences Centre, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, T2N 4N1, Calgary, AB, Canada

[6]Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

[7]Department of Family Medicine, G012 Health Sciences Centre, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, T2N 4N1, Calgary, AB, Canada

[8]Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

[9]Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

[10]Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

[11]Department of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

[12]Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

[13]Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

关键词: Primary care;    Cannabis;    Electronic medical records;    Data quality;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13104-023-06274-6

 received in 2022-02-15, accepted in 2023-01-16,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

ObjectiveDocumenting cannabis use is important for patient care, but no formal requirements for consistent reporting exist in primary care. The objective of this study was to understand how cannabis use is documented in primary care electronic medical record (EMR) data.ResultsThis was a cross-sectional study using de-identified EMR data from over 398,000 patients and 333 primary care providers in Alberta, Canada. An automated pattern-matching algorithm was developed to identify text and ICD-9 diagnostic codes indicating cannabis use in the EMR. There was a total of 11,724 records indicating cannabis use from 4652 patients, representing approximately 1.2% of the patient sample. Commonly used terms and ICD-9 codes included cannabis, marijuana/marihuana, THC, 304.3 and 305.2. Nabilone was the most frequently prescribed cannabinoid medication. Slightly more males and those with a chronic condition had cannabis use recorded more often. Overall, very few patients have cannabis use recorded in primary care EMR data and this is not captured in a systematic way. We propose several strategies to improve the documentation of cannabis use to facilitate more effective clinical care, research, and surveillance.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

【 图 表 】

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Fig. 2