A new leadership team and the creation of a grants program to conduct medical marijuana clinical outcomes research highlighted the inaugural Consortium for Medical Marijuana Clinical Outcomes board meeting on Aug. 19 in Gainesville.
Medical Marijuana Consortium BoardRoger Filligim, Ph.D., a distinguished professor in the UF College of Dentistry, was elected board chair, while Daniel Flynn, Ph.D., vice president for research at Florida Atlantic University was elected vice chair. The board appointed Almut Winterstein, Ph.D., a professor and The Robert and Barbara Crisafi Chair in Medication Safety in the UF College of Pharmacy, as the consortium director. Robert Cook, M.D., M.P.H., a professor of epidemiology and internal medicine in the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions and the UF College of Medicine, was appointed the consortium’s associate director.
A competitive grants program will offer $600,000 to researchers from any member institution interested in medical marijuana clinical outcomes research. Membership in the consortium is open to all Florida public and private universities. A request for grant proposals will be announced in the coming weeks.
The board also approved the consortium’s research plan for its first year. Key initiatives include fostering collaboration amongst consortium members, disseminating evidence via an outreach plan and developing research infrastructure that would support medical marijuana clinical outcomes research by members. The research infrastructure features a Clinical Core to support prospective clinical research and controlled trials; an expert group of scientific, medical and policy consultants to inform development of a research agenda and evidence synthesis; and the development of the Medical Marijuana Clinical Outcomes Research Data Repository, or MEMORY, database, which aims to link medical marijuana registry data with other data sources such as medical records such as medical and prescription claims as well as electronic medical records. The MEMORY database will serve as a unique resource for real-world medical marijuana clinical outcomes research.
The University of Florida was selected in June by the State University System of Florida Board of Governors to lead the statewide consortium studying health outcomes related to medical marijuana. The public and private universities represented in the consortium include UF, Florida Atlantic University, Florida A&M University, the University of Central Florida, Florida State University, the University of Miami, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University and Florida Memorial University.
Photos of the board meeting are available at https://ufcollegeofpharmacy.smugmug.com/MMJ-Consortium-Board-Meeting/