Evaluation of the integrative medical cannabis clinic for cancer patients at National Cancer Institute

Abstract

              This evaluation research aimed to evaluate the success of the integrative medical cannabis clinic at National Cancer Institute. The evaluation model used Stufflebeam’s CIPP Model framed within context, input, process and product. The population in this study included 3 groups are: 3 hospital administrators, 13 health care staffs who work at cannabis clinic and 104 cancer patients who receiving medical cannabis. The instruments for data collection consisted of 4 set of questionnaires: 1) Opinion about the overall goals or mission 2) Resources about strategies for implementation including structure, system and staff 3) The cancer patient’ satisfaction with the service of clinic 4) Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS). The content validity of questionnaires at the number 1-3 was measured by item-objective congruence index (IOC) yielding a value of 0.73, 0.81 and 0.78 respectively. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. Data were collected during 1 April 2021 to 31 October 2022. The results indicated that for context, the hospital administrators indicated the integrative medical cannabis clinic at NCI was more correspond, especially improving knowledge in cancer care. For input, most of health care staffs gave its appropriateness at high level of structure, system and staff. For process, the satisfaction of cancer patients toward the service of medical cannabis clinic was at a high level. For outcome, after medical cannabis treatment, cancer patients had significantly lower mean scores of pain, insomnia and anxiety levels compared before (P<0.001, P<0.001 and P<0.05, respectively). Side effects were reported by 24.8% of patients, with dry-mouth. The integrative medical cannabis clinic can improve access to complementary treatment option in patients with cancer. Medicinal cannabis can safely relieve cancer symptoms.