Clinician's Guide to Assessment and Rehabilitation of Driving in Neurodegenerative Condition #38

TUE 1 NOV // 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Primary Content Focus: Neurodegenerative disease (e.g., MS, Parkinson’s disease)
Secondary Content Focus: Clinical practice (assessment, diagnosis, treatment, knowledge translation/EBP)

This session is directed to novice and experienced clinicians in learning about methodologies to detect and assess driving impairments in patients with neurodegenerative conditions (Alzheimer’s disease; Parkinson’s disease; Multiple Sclerosis; Huntington’s disease). In this instructional course, the presenters will provide extensive knowledge,practical hints, and hands-on training on the appropriate use of screening and intervention tools for fitness-to-drive in the clinic and beyond.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Be familiar with the ethical and legal fitness-to-drive issues and referral procedures
Understand the functional limitations that underlie impaired driving in neurodegenerative conditions
Select, administer, and interpret clinical fitness-to-drive screening tools
Familiarize with the use of simulators to assess and train driving skills
Be guided by the best evidence to understand the rehabilitation potential of drivers with neurodegenerative conditions

KEY WORDS

Automobile driving
Parkinson disease
Dementia
Multiple sclerosis
Huntington disease

FACULTY

Hannes Devos

Hannes Devos, PhD
Assistant Professor, Augusta University

Dr. Devos earned his doctoral degree in Biomedical Sciences on the topic “Evaluation and Rehabilitation of Driving Ability in Neurological Conditions” from the University of Leuven, Belgium. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the National Advanced Driving Simulator and in the Department of Neurology at the University of Iowa, IA. He is currently Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy, Neurology, Ophthalmology, and Graduate Studies at Augusta University, Augusta, GA. Dr. Devos’ research interests are centered on development and validation of clinical screening tools to predict fitness to drive, comparison of different training strategies to improve driving, and visual scanning in drivers with visual and neurological conditions. He has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed abstracts and manuscripts on evaluation and rehabilitation of driving for people with functional disabilities.

Abiodun Akinwuntan, PhD, MPH, MBA
Professor and Dean, University of Kansas Medical Center

Dr. Akinwuntan is Professor and Dean of the School of Health Professions at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Dr. Akinwuntan has been involved in the evaluation and training of driving after different neurological impairments for over 15 years. He has completed many funded research and published several scholarly works on evaluation and training of driving after different neurological conditions. He is a member of the ADED which is “The Association for Driving Rehabilitation Specialists”. In 2008, Dr. Akinwuntan was appointed a member of the Medical Expert Panel on Stroke and Commercial Truck Driving of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The focus of the panel is to give recommendations for revising the current medical standards and guidelines concerning stroke and fitness for duty of commercial truck drivers in the United States. In 2013, Dr. Akinwuntan was awarded the 2013-2014 US Fulbright Scholar Award. He was elected a Fulbright Specialist in 2015, and now serves as a reviewer for all Fulbright Scholar Award applications to West and Central Africa.

David Carr, MD
Professor, Washington University

Dr. Carr is the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolf Professor of Geriatric Medicine and has dual appointments in the Department of Medicine and Neurology at Washington University at St. Louis. He is a board certified internist and geriatrician and completed his fellowship training in geriatrics at Duke University in 1990. Dr. Carr is Clinical Director in the Division of Geriatrics and Nutritional Science at Washington University in 1994 and Clinical Director of Neurorehabilitation in 2013. Dr. Carr is Medical Director of The Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis and Parc Provence, a community facility for dementia care in the greater St. Louis area. He has been a past consultant and/or editor for Medscape, AMA, and AGS to assist with creation or modification of their curriculum for physicians on medically impaired drivers. He is committee section head of the Canadian Medical Association’s update on dementia and driving guidelines and is an active consultant with the Traffic Injury Research Foundation’s projects on license renewal and evaluation of older adults in Ontario and the creation of a new educational tool on pain medications and driving through the FDA. He is currently a consultant with the AAAFTS to assist with the creation of a cognitive road test for driving instructors. He has been and/or currently is the principal investigator or co-investigator on internal and external research initiatives related to medical conditions and driving. He is a primary author or co-author on over 60 peer-review manuscripts and/or book chapters on medical conditions and driving.

Maud Ranchet, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Augusta University

Dr. Maud Ranchet received a PhD in Neuropsychology from the University of Lyon in 2011. She began her career at IFSTTAR, France and she is now a postdoctoral fellow in the Driving Simulator Lab of Georgia Regents University. She has a particular interest in the impact of visual, motor and cognitive impairments on driving in individuals with medical conditions.

James Stowe, PhD
Postdoctoral fellow, Washington University

Dr. Stowe is dedicated to helping older adults maintain safe mobility throughout the life course. He holds an MS in Gerontology from Kansas State University and a PhD in Human Development from the University of Missouri. Currently, he leads translational intervention trials in the School of Medicine’s neuroscience driving simulation laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis. The purpose of the lab is to prolong safe driving life expectancy. He co-chairs the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety’s Subcommittee on Elder Mobility and Safety—a statewide group focused on the older driver portion of Missouri’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan.

Ergun Uc, MD
Professor, University of Iowa

Dr. Uc is a professor in the Department of Neurology, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa. He has been certified by the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry and has appointments as staff neurologist at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City. He graduated from the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University in Turkey and completed his neurology residency and movement disorders fellowship at the University of Iowa. Dr. Uc is involved in all aspects of the care of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients including deep brain stimulation (DBS), as well as Huntington’s disease, dystonia (botulinum toxin injections), essential tremor (DBS), and other movement disorders. His research focuses primarily on Parkinson’s disease and he has received research support as from the National Institutes of Health (Prediction of Driver Safety in Parkinson’s disease-R01, principal investigator), Department of Veterans Affairs (Driver Rehabilitation in PD, Effects of Aerobic Exercise in PD-both Merit Review awards, PI), as well as Michael J. Fox Foundation, American Parkinson Disease Association, and Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. He also has conducted research on Huntington’s disease, including driving. As a member of the Parkinson Study Group and Huntington Study Group, he has participated in multicenter clinical trials on experimental drugs.