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NOTM - National Office for Traffic Medicine

The National Office for Traffic Medicine (NOTM) was established in 2011 as a joint initiative by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) to manage the development of medical fitness to drive guidelines and the development of traffic medicine policy in the Republic of Ireland. The Office is now managed by the Centre for Innovative Human Systems, in the School of Psychology in Trinity College Dublin (TCD).

Traffic Medicine embraces all the disciplines, techniques and methods aimed at reducing the harm that traffic crashes can inflict on people. This includes research into patterns of mobility and crash risk among individuals with various medical conditions, assessment of guidelines to maximize safe mobility, promoting a safe system approach to road safety policies, training and educating health professionals and road users; research into the biomechanics and epidemiology of traffic crashes, designing safer roads and traffic control systems, and medical and surgical care provided to crash victims. The best-known element of traffic medicine is the development of evidence-based best practice guidelines to assist practitioners and the public in medical certification and support of fitness to drive. The ethos of the National Traffic Medicine programme is enabling and rehabilitative in trying to ensure that transport mobility is not hampered, or rendered unsafe, by remediable illness or functional loss.

The goal of the Traffic Medicine programme is to help doctors and licensing authorities promote safe mobility for drivers with medical conditions. The programme consists of four strands of activity:

Developing National Medical Fitness to Drive Guidelines (Sláinte & Tiomáint) that are used by doctors and other healthcare professionals in assessing medical fitness to drive in their patients
Education and Outreach: Designing and delivering courses for doctors, healthcare professionals and road safety stakeholders and increasing awareness about medical fitness to drive and the supports available to drivers with medical conditions.
Conducting and publishing research in medical fitness to drive and Traffic Medicine
Collaborating with national and international stakeholders in influencing the development of policy and practice in Traffic Medicine

Our Team

Dr. Margaret Martin - Programme Officer (Research Fellow)

Further details to follow shortly.

Dr. Margaret Ryan - Visiting Research Fellow

Margaret is a cognitive psychologist with a strong track record in applying Human Factors theoretical concepts and best practice in developing and improving safety-critical systems. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow (2013-216) and a visiting research fellow (2016 – date) with the Centre for Innovative Human Systems where she worked on a range of research and development projects in the road transport, aviation and light rail sectors. As an expert in driver behaviour, she’s worked closely with the Road Safety Authority (RSA) in evaluating road safety education programmes. Between 2016 and 2022 she managed the national Traffic Medicine programme in the Republic of Ireland which was jointly operated by the RSA and the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland (RCPI).

Margaret also works closely with her counterparts in the UK in advancing best practice in Traffic Medicine. She is the director of the Pracdriva web resource for medical fitness to drive and she is an Affiliate Lecturer in Driving Mobility (UK’s) undergraduate and postgraduate certificate courses on ‘On-road Driving Assessment and Outdoor Mobility’. A list of her publications is available here.