Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk and Raydon Corporation of Daytona Beach, Fla., announced Tuesday a licensing agreement for Raydon to develop a driver assessment program for the company's commercial driving simulators based on a validated simulation driving assessment tool invented by one of the medical school's geriatrics experts.

How to assess the driving abilities of seniors is an increasing challenge for American society. Age alone is not a reliable indicator. The onset of dementia and other illnesses can subtly but seriously impact the driving skills of some individuals when they are still in their 60s, while other individuals have outstanding driving skills in their 80s and beyond. The challenge is to find an objective, standardized, and practical method for reliably assessing the critical cognitive and motor skills needed for safe driving.

Barbara Freund, Ph.D., an associate professor at the medical school's Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, is a nationally recognized researcher on driver safety among older adults. She developed a simulated driving assessment tool that objectively tests the cognitive and motor skills used in driving. Her computerized assessment tool has been validated against on-road assessments. The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) refers elderly drivers to Freund for evaluation.

"DMVs are looking for help on how to evaluate drivers objectively without penalizing them just because they're old," said Freund.

In addition to its leadership in the field of military simulation, Raydon Corporation is a leading developer and supplier of high-tech, low-cost driving simulators, which are currently used in dozens of states for novic
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Contact: Doug Gardner
Gardneda@evms.edu
757-446-6070
Eastern Virginia Medical School
7-Mar-2006