PRACDRIVA has been made possible because of the partnership between ¹ Driving Mobility and ² CIECA.   This partnership, during the period 2017 -2020 brought together the knowledge, skills, and expertise of a group of professionals involved in, or interested in developing an international approach to clinical driver assessment.  This group was the ³ CIECA Fit to Drive (FTD) Topical Group, Subgroup 1 Setting Standards for Disabled Driver Assessment.      

The intention is for PRACDRIVA to be a realistic practical online guide for a range of practitioners, countries, and organisations, at whatever stage of development of clinical driver assessment they were involved in.
 
The ³ final summarising report and recommendations of the subgroup was presented in 2021.  The commitment to build on the recommendations and progress PRACDRIVA was actively followed up.  Driving Mobility, with the acknowledgment of CIECA, agreed to manage the production and development of the PRACDRIVA (Practical Clinical Driver Assessment) website.

The workshops in 2014 and 2015 recognised the work in 2009 of the PORTARE Project and resulting handbook of Disabled Driver Assessment, (Hunter et al., 2009) used as a reference in the field of driver assessment within Europe.  The potential for updating the content of the handbook was addressed during the Fit to Drive Topical Group.  As the direction of the work progressed towards the development of Guidelines for the ideal driver assessment, the updating of the content of the handbook was not possible within the remit of the Group’s emerging work.   However, we acknowledge and recognise the work of PORTARE as a valuable resource in the specialty of driver assessment practice.

At the heart of the direction of the group’s future work, the following core principles were acknowledged:

• the understanding and acceptance of the importance to the individual with a health condition or disability, that they receive fairness in any assessment of their driving and independent mobility. 
  
• that the topic of driver assessment is complex, with countries and organisations at different stages of development.   The interpretation of what is meant by a practical, clinical driver assessment differs widely and a core definition needed to be agreed.
  
• that the range of skills, experience, and specialist training for a range of practitioners around clinical driver assessment should be high quality and comprehensive.  However, there should be an accessible starting point to support all countries and organisations in their development.
  
• the understanding that a practical clinical driver assessment does not replace the Medical Fitness to Drive legislative framework in countries.  It is there to support the individual driver, health care and related professionals – it should be viewed as supportive of the Medical Fitness to Drive decision making process.

The wide range of expertise, knowledge and skills of the participants brought together the opportunity for a renewed approach, resulting in a shared view on what was considered should form an ideal practical clinical driver assessment.  This led to the construction of a set of six guidelines which practitioners and organisations could refer to, at whatever stage of development.  The work was taken forward by a Steering Group working in parallel to the Fit to Drive Group. The Steering Group focussed on the development of an on-line resource, linking the requirements of specific medical conditions to the guidelines.

After a break in delivery of the work due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are pleased to advise that the recommendation to establish the website, managed by Driving Mobility, was approved, with the acknowledgement of CIECA. PRACDRIVA is now at the implementation stage, led by the PRACDRIVA Project Team.

We invite you to learn more about the detail and direction of the work which has led to this website at ⁽³⁾  and welcome your feedback on PRACDRIVA website at our CONTACT page.

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