Family physicans including primary care physicians trained in internal medicine focus on treating individuals throughout their lives, from newborns to the elderly. Family physicians typically see anyone with any problem, but tend to be experts in common problems. These MDs are usually associated with a hospital and network of specialists that they can refer patients to when a specialist is required.
Family physicians are on the front line in diagnosis and treatment. Conditions that impact the nervous system, musculoskeletal, vision can impact a person’s driving fitness. A family physician does not need to be a specialist in these areas to recognize potential limitations.
Early dementia, macular degeneration, stroke, arthritis, diabetes, obesity, epilepsy are all conditions family physicians encounter. Each of these can impact a person’s driving fitness. Family physicians are excellent at communicating with their patients and their families what it takes to lead healthier and more informed lives.
Driving evaluation, remediation and cessation programs are not to be treated lightly. Great measures should be taken and considered when discussing driving fitness and licensing. The best situations are where multiple people are involved, from the patient, the patient’s family, the family physician, and those that specialize in the disease or condition.
DriveSafety desires family physicians and primary care physicians to know that DriveSafety has made available a driving simulation system the helps those that specialize in neurological, psychological, orthopaedic and rehabilitation evaluate and assess an individual’s physical and mental condition and how it relates to driving fitness.
The CDS™ clinical driving simulator offers a range of options for the clinician and therapist. CDS Practice modules may improve skills and activities of daily living beyond driving alone; it can potentially improve perceptual, cognitive and motor-control behaviors which depend on spatial orientation and navigation, visual processing speed, divided attention etc., whether or not they are related to driving. The practice module are designed to provide an early, face-valid simulator experience for engaging dynamic neuroplasticity at a critical time in the neuro-recovery process. Growing evidence suggests that cognitive behavioral therapy which works on specific tasks like driving may simultaneously generalize to other non-driving tasks that require perceptual processing and spatial orientation skills and abilities.
CDS is not designed to determine if a person is a “good driver.” Rather, it is a system that enables practice, assessment and rehabilitation of reactions and responses to a wide variety of complex, sometimes challenging real-world driving scenarios, including the time pressures encountered in everyday driving. Spatial orientation and navigation, situation awareness, divided and selective attention, visual processing speed and judgment are some brain functions that can be practiced, assessed and rehabilitated using CDS.
CDS will help clinicians answer questions such as:
- Does the client have sufficient perceptual, cognitive and motor-control skills needed to maintain safe following distance and lane position?
- Does the client become confused in complex traffic situations?
- Does the client have reasonable perception-reaction times to be a safe driver under diverse conditions, or are there situations in which the client might be at particular risk?
- Does the client have the basic skills required to turn, stop and safely operate a motor vehicle?
- Are there particular skills that need retraining?
- Which compensatory strategy will be most beneficial to the client?
CDS will offer clinicians the means to help more patients including those with traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, post-traumatic stress disorder, epilepsy, sleep disorders, to practice driving again or to have their driving skills assessed and/or rehabilitated in a controlled and safe yet contextual environment.
The turn-key CDS clinical driving simulator is based on an actual car – a Ford Focus – giving all parties some face validation. The CDS Scenarios suite of virtual drives provide the OT and the patients a variety of driving situations including residential, suburban, urban, rural, industrial and freeway as well as various lighting (bright sunlight to dark nighttime) and weather conditions (clear, foggy, snowy). The virtual driving scenarios range from simple, adaptation drives and limited complexity to transitional drives that involved multiple real-world driving settings and various environmental factors. There are enough of them to avoid the clients from memorizing them. The driving scenarios are designed in accordance with AASHTO, MUTCD and ADED best practices for delivery of driver rehabilitation services.
The administrative interface is intuitive – the administrator can begin running virtual practice drives immediately. The administrator has the ability to play-back the patients’ practice drives, allowing the OT to point out to the patient the positive and negative behaviors and for the patient to learning and gain additional insight.
A suite of virtual drives involving a variety of common driving situations allows the therapists or clinicians to see their patients in a series of driving environments, from the simple to the complex.
Family Medicine Links