About
Health care providers should prepare to have evidence-informed discussions about cannabis as more patients show interest in use for medical or recreational purposes. At the same time, high-quality research is greatly needed to fill in the gaps in our understanding of the health effects of cannabis.
STEM is an independent, methodologically rigorous, and updated cannabis evidence resource for the health care sector that synthesizes what is known from research and what is left to learn about the health effects of cannabis.
The 2 main goals of STEM are to:
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- Empower health care providers to have evidence-based discussions about cannabis use with their patients; and
- Identify specific research gaps and highlight ongoing research to help researchers design high-yield studies that advance the field of clinical cannabis research.
STEM meets these goals through a series of living systematic reviews on important cannabis-related health care topics. We developed a registered ongoing studies section of our website to help researchers find what others are doing in cannabis research. The website includes brief, clinically focused materials designed for busy clinicians, information about cannabis and research policy in the US, and a section highlighting newsworthy developments about cannabis research and its health effects.
Peer-Review Process
The STEM project uses an external peer-review process to help ensure our content is up-to-date, accurate, and clear. Each evidence synthesis document (i.e., visual abstract, summary, and full report), clinician brief, and cannabis basics section undergoes external peer-review by at least two subject matter experts in the topic of interest.
Please note that STEM is focused on clinical care and does not generally include information from preclinical or animal studies.
Curious about the artwork on the STEM website?
The high-resolution images displayed on each tab are scanning electron microscope (SEM) photographs of cannabis and hydroponic nutrient chemicals that were produced in black-and-white and then colored by hand. Check out the artist’s site here.