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
Clinical Update in Traffic Medicine
The Clinical Update in Traffic Medicine forms part of a series of The National Office for Traffic Medicine educational events for medical and healthcare professionals. These events provide participants with an opportunity to increase their knowledge, skills and understanding of specific specialist areas in medicine considering emerging evidence in clinical practice and empirical research.
The 2024 clinical update featured presentations from experts in the fields of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, Occupational Therapy, Gerontology and Older People Transport and Driving. Access the presentations below.
Programme - Clinical Update in Traffic Medicine
Clinical Update Agenda & Presenter Bios
Prof. Walter McNicholas Presentation
Prof. Des O Neill Presentation
Prof. Charles Musselwhite Presentation
Dr. Tadhg Stapleton Presentation
Mary Ward Essay Competition
Mary Ward Essay Competition Submission Guidelines
Mary Ward Essay Competition Cover Sheet (PDF)
Mary Ward Essay Competition Cover Sheet (WORD)
Publications
Medical fitness to drive, emergency service vehicles and crash risk. |
A Systematic Review of the Risks of Motor Vehicle Crashes Associated with Psychiatric Disorders. |
Widening our horizons for promoting mobility and safety for drivers with dementia. |
Inclusion of medical fitness to drive in medical postgraduate training curricula. |
COVID-19: vision and fitness to drive. |
Perceptions and attitudes toward risk and personal responsibility in the context of medical fitness to drive. O’Neill D, Walshe E, Romer D, Winston F. Transportation Equity, Health, and Aging: A Novel Approach to Healthy Longevity with Benefits Across the Life Span. National Academy of Medicine Perspectives. 2019 Dec 2;2019:10.31478/201912a. doi: 10.31478/201912a. |
A systematic review of the risk of motor vehicle collision after stroke or transient ischemic attack. |
An International Approach to Enhancing a National Guideline on Driving and Dementia. |
Awareness of Medical Fitness to Drive Guidelines among Occupational Physicians and Psychiatrists. |
Update on the Risk of Motor Vehicle Collision or Driving Impairment with Dementia: A Collaborative International Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. |
A systematic review of evidence for fitness-to-drive among people with the mental health conditions of schizophrenia, stress/anxiety disorder, depression, personality disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. |
Adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and driving - risk, medication and fitness to drive. |
Mobility and safety issues in drivers with dementia. |
Factors Influencing the Clinical Stratification of Suitability to Drive after Stroke: A Qualitative Study. |
An international study of the quality of national-level guidelines on driving with medical illness. |
Impact of new guidelines and educational program on awareness of medical fitness to drive among general practitioners in Ireland. |
Driving assessment for maintaining mobility and safety in drivers with dementia. |
Driving assessment for maintaining mobility and safety in drivers with dementia. |
More mad and more wise. |
Medical screening of older drivers is not evidence based. |
Exploring the relationship between self-awareness of driving efficacy and that of a proxy when determining fitness to drive after stroke. |
Our Team
Prof. Desmond O'Neill
In international terms, Prof O’Neill’s major field of research is that of transportation, ageing and older drivers and has led to invitations to advise the OECD, American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, Swedish Road Transport Board, the US Transportation Research Board, the UK Department of Transport and House of Lords. He is a member of the international scientific board of ITNAmerica, the premier social economy model of assisted transportation in North America. He has previously worked with CIECA, the international body on driver assessment and testing, on its guides to medical fitness to drive. He has been involved in the development of innovations such as a Postgraduate Certificate in Traffic Medicine, and has published widely on traffic medicine in peer-reviewed literature and chapters in medical textbooks.
Dr. Maggie Martin - Programme Manager (Research Fellow)
Dr. Maggie Martin is a cognitive psychologist specialising in traffic psychology with over twenty years’ working in this field. She has extensive experience in project management, research, and education through her work within the Departments of Public Health, Health Promotion and the Road Safety Authority (RSA), while also collaborating with an Garda Síochána, TII, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety and road safety organisations (nationally and internationally).
She has successfully planned, managed, and delivered a wide range of research and programme activity including publication of national reports, production of in-depth research reports, policy implementation, literature reviews, service reviews, stakeholder collaboration, clinical audit and evaluation. In her role as project manager for a four-year cross border road safety project ‘Steering to Safety’ she created multiagency working groups and steering committees along with the management of all budget and programme activity.
Maggie has unique experience and insight into Irish road safety behaviour due to a year spent analysing over 860 fatal collisions which occurred in Ireland over a 5-year period in collaboration with an Garda Siochana. One component of this unique research involved collaboration with the Medical Bureau of Road Safety to identify the role of alcohol and drugs as a contributory factor to these collisions. Overall, the aim of this project was to identify the main factors which led to a fatal collision and educate the public on these behaviours to increase understanding and compliance of road safety rules and laws including medical fitness to drive. The European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL) requested the findings of this project be shared across several of their conferences which were established by the traffic police forces of Europe in to improve road safety and law enforcement on the roads of Europe. Demonstrating her passion for road safety, her PhD in the School of Psychology TCD focused on the pedestrian behaviour and perception of risk among young adolescents and their parents in Ireland.
In tandem with her role in road safety, since 2001 Maggie has been successfully creating content and delivering education programmes to a wide range of audience including GPs within the Royal College of Physicians (RCPI), students in higher level institutions in Sligo, Dundalk, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and Dublin City University (DCU).
Across all areas of her work since starting in the Department of Public Health she has extensive experience in working with all levels of stakeholders, including the public, lobby groups, high level service managers, medical consultants, GPs, road safety experts, academics, and the media. She has delivered road safety research messages internationally and nationally through research, conference presentations, extensive radio, television and social media interviews. She has demonstrated the ability to work under pressure in the very sensitive field of road safety and understands the dynamics of multi-agency collaboration.
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.
Contact Details
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