What topics does this cannabis study cover?

This study covers research on: Endocannabinoid.

Where was this research published?

Published in BMJ open on April 21, 2026.

How healthcare systems successfully implement newly legalised treatments

From legalisation to practice: implementation of newly legalised health interventions in healthcare settings - a systematic review.

BMJ open • April 21, 2026 • Review • Moderately Relevant

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AI Summary

This systematic review examined how newly legalised health interventions are implemented in healthcare settings globally, analyzing 78 studies published between 2014-2024. The research identified multiple types of recently legalised interventions, including medical cannabis use (2 studies), psychedelic-assisted therapies, medical abortion, medical assistance in dying, and assisted reproduction. The analysis revealed that implementation of these interventions is inherently complex due to their emotive nature, ethical controversies, and high-stakes consequences.

The researchers mapped 880 distinct barriers, facilitators, and implementing strategies across five key domains: patient/consumer perspectives, healthcare provider readiness, organisational capacity, legal frameworks, and broader healthcare systems. These factors were further organized into 27 specific barriers, 18 facilitators, and 17 implementation strategies. For medical cannabis specifically, the review highlights that successful implementation requires coordinated action across multiple levels—from individual healthcare provider training and patient education to organisational policy development and legal clarity.

The findings provide a practical roadmap for healthcare systems implementing newly legalised interventions like medical cannabis. Key takeaway: successful rollout depends equally on policy frameworks, provider competence, and patient access, not just legal permission. The authors suggest this framework can guide future implementation plans, helping ensure that newly legalised health interventions reach more patients and healthcare organisations efficiently. This is particularly relevant as more jurisdictions consider or expand medical cannabis programs.

📄 Original Abstract

Over the last decade, a growing number of health interventions (eg, medical assistance in dying and mitochondrial donation) have become legalised or decriminalised globally. Newly legalised health interventions share characteristics that are distinct from other health interventions, making their implementation more challenging. They are often highly emotive, controversial and associated with strong opinions and ethical dilemmas, with some of them being high-stake and irreversible. This study aimed to identify, systematise and map the factors that affect the implementation of health interventions that have recently been legalised. A systematically conducted review. PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE and CINAHL were searched to identify studies published between 2014 and 2024. We included studies if they evaluated the implementation of health interventions that were newly legalised or newly decriminalised. Data were extracted and synthesised through descriptive analysis. Both deductive and inductive thematic analyses were applied to map the barriers, facilitators and implementing strategies that influence the implementation of newly legalised health interventions in healthcare settings. The search strategy yielded 1510 publications, of which 78 were included in this review. Findings showed that several newly legalised health interventions, including medical assistance in dying (n=56 studies); medical abortion (n=13); assisted human reproduction (n=3); psychedelic-assisted therapies (n=3); use of medical cannabis (n=2) and use of biosimilars (n=1) were addressed. The analysis identified a total of 880 diverse barriers, facilitators and strategies in five domains across system, organisational and individual levels: (1) patients/service users/consumers; (2) healthcare providers; (3) healthcare organisation; (4) legal processes and (5) system. These were further divided into 27 themes of barriers, 18 themes of facilitators and 17 themes of strategies. Implementing newly legalised health interventions is complex. Our findings can support the development of an implementation plan for the spread and scaling of future health interventions, maximising the impact of interventions and making them accessible to more people and health organisations.

Paper Type

📚 Review

Publication

Journal: BMJ open
Published: April 21, 2026
PMID: 42014155
DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-101271

Authors (8)

Maryam Vizheh Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia maryamvizheh@yahoo.com.
Klay Lamprell Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Samran Sheriff Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Michaela Cormack Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Jeffrey Braithwaite Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
+3 more authors