MeCanna (BAG reporting system)

MeCanna is the online reporting system of the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) for medical treatments with cannabis medicines. By law, the BAG collects data on medical treatments with cannabis-type narcotics that are not authorised, or that are authorised but prescribed for an indication other than the authorised one and used in a pharmaceutical form other than the authorised one (Art. 8b para. 1 BetmG). Treating physicians must record the data in pseudonymised form (Art. 18f BetmG; Art. 65a to 65f BetmKV).

The BAG's MeCanna page states that all prescriptions of cannabis medicines with at least 1 percent total THC must be reported, and it describes the reportable case for authorised medicines as another indication or another pharmaceutical form. Recording is optional for THC-containing medicines authorised by Swissmedic and used as authorised; cannabis extracts with less than 1 percent total THC are not reportable.

What is recorded and when

• Patient: patient code, year of birth, sex, weight and canton of residence (Art. 65b para. 2 BetmKV).
• Physician: name, address and federal postgraduate titles.
• Treatment: date of prescription, any previous treatment with cannabis medicines, the medical details of the treatment and its course, and the end of treatment with date and reason.
• Timing: immediately after the first prescription, after the first and the second year of treatment, and at the end of treatment if it ends earlier (Art. 65b para. 3 BetmKV).
• Time limit: Art. 8b and 18f BetmG are in force until 31 July 2029, and the Federal Council may end the recording duty earlier if new data are no longer needed for the evaluation. After the data collection ends, the data are kept for at most ten years (Art. 18f BetmG; Art. 65e and 65f BetmKV).

Where patients meet it

MeCanna concerns patients only where a reportable prescription is issued, which happens only where medically indicated. Physicians may generate the patient's pseudonym from the AHV number by one-way encryption, which produces the same pseudonym each time; only the treating physician may process the AHV number together with the patient code (Art. 65a BetmKV). The results are made available to cantonal authorities, treating physicians and interested research institutions (Art. 8b BetmG).