THE DRIVEABLE PROGRAM
Creating safer communities through technology.
Based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. DriveABLE assessment technology harnesses 25 years of experience with decades of ongoing research and development, evaluating cognitive driving ability. Over 150,000 assessments have been performed in North America.
The Origins of DriveABLE
In 1995, at the request of physicians, Dr. Allen Dobbs and his team at the Neurocognitive Research Unit of Northern Alberta Geriatric Program, were asked to find a test which could assess patients who were still driving and had a cognitively impairing medical condition.
After an exhaustive literature review, no such assessment test was found. The physician group then tasked Dr. Dobb’s team with developing an evidence-based test that was specific to driving and cognitive impairment.
Eight years of initial research and over 1500 subjects later, the team had developed both an In-Office and On-Road test which, together, formed the only assessment system worldwide that assessed a driver based on the level of cognitive impairment caused by their medical condition or medications.
DriveABLE is a university spin-off company, which was established because of a large, and growing need in the community for fair, evidence-based assessments of medically at-risk drivers with generalized cognitive impairment.
The science behind DriveABLE
DriveABLE is a computerized neurocognitive assessment tool designed to evaluate drivers who may be at risk due to a medical or neurological disorder. It is the only cognitive assessment tool shown to be highly predictive of actual on-road performance.
Many medical conditions can result in impairments that negatively affect driving abilities, whether they are episodic or persistent. While everyone with a medical condition may not experience reduced driving abilities, even vague symptoms may indicate the need for a solid baseline to be established for future assessments.
DriveABLE has become the global leader in driver risk assessment technology for the fair and accurate assessment of medically at-risk drivers with generalized cognitive impairment. The assessment is comprised of two parts:
The DriveABLE Cognitive Assessment Tool, known as DCAT Mobile is one of the world’s leading technologies that measures the cognitive skills needed for safe driving and predicts actual on-road performance.
The DriveABLE On-Road Evaluation, known as DORE provides an opportunity for further evaluation of screened drivers. DORE is a specialized on-road evaluation that measures the errors that cognitively impaired drivers make that are different, either in terms of the type of error or the frequency and severity, from those of healthy normal drivers. Specifically designed to cognitively challenge the driver and provide an opportunity to demonstrate real-world driving ability.
Both assessments are age normed and demonstrated to be equally fair for urban and rural drivers. Each portion of the assessment takes approximately one hour to administer by a DriveABLE Certified Assessor and DriveABLE Certified Driving Evaluator.