The International Society of Cannabis Pharmacists (ISCPh) participated in the 2026 National Cannabis Research Conference (NCRC) in San Diego, California, presenting a proposed framework designed to advance the standardized assessment of medical cannabis treatment outcomes.
Dr. Melani Kane, PharmD, ISCPh President and Executive Director, delivered an oral presentation introducing the Cannabinoid Evaluation and Recommendation System (CbERS), a clinical framework under development for evaluating therapeutic response and treatment-related adverse effects in patients using cannabis-based therapies.
Why Standardized Cannabis Treatment Assessment Matters
In conventional medication management, healthcare professionals routinely evaluate whether a treatment is providing sufficient benefit, whether adverse effects are occurring, and whether adjustments are necessary.
These same principles apply to medical cannabis. However, variation in products, formulations, dosing practices, and documentation approaches can make treatment experiences difficult to characterize and compare.
CbERS seeks to address this challenge by providing a structured approach to evaluating therapeutic benefit and tolerability.
The proposed framework uses a seven-point classification system, ranging from −3 to +3, to characterize the patient’s treatment experience and inform consideration of subsequent clinical interventions.
Rather than replacing professional judgment, CbERS is intended to support clinical decision-making and more consistent documentation.
Connecting Assessment With Clinical Decisions
An important component of the framework is the relationship between assessment findings and potential treatment modifications.
Clinical considerations may include dose optimization, changes in administration timing or frequency, formulation or route adjustments, and the management of treatment-related safety concerns.
The framework also recognizes that complex clinical situations may involve competing therapeutic and safety priorities that cannot always be fully represented by a single classification.
Next Steps: Expert Evaluation and Validation
CbERS remains a proposed framework and has not yet undergone formal validation.
ISCPh is preparing a modified Delphi process to obtain structured feedback from experts with relevant clinical, research, and instrument-development experience.
Future evaluation may include interrater reliability, test-retest reliability, and assessment of construct validity.
These activities will help determine whether the framework can provide a consistent, interpretable approach to documenting medical cannabis treatment experiences.
Advancing Clinical Cannabis Research
Standardized assessment tools have the potential to improve communication among healthcare professionals and support the collection of more comparable data across patients, clinicians, and healthcare settings.
The NCRC presentation provided an opportunity to introduce CbERS to the broader cannabis research community and encourage scientific discussion around its proposed clinical applications and future development.
ISCPh remains committed to advancing research that supports individualized treatment, medication safety, and clinically meaningful assessment of cannabis-based therapies.
Interested in contributing to ISCPh research?
We welcome opportunities to engage with clinicians and researchers interested in the development and evaluation of standardized clinical assessment frameworks.