REWIND<< Medical fitness to drive

This popular episode was first published in 2019. Australia and NZ are made up of sprawling cities and far-flung towns and driving is often viewed as a fundamental freedom. It can be hard for clinicians to challenge that freedom with patients who they consider unfit to drive safely. And harder still to deal with the consequences if a patient does have a crash.

There are diagnoses that should raise red flags for driving fitness in various specialty areas, and a clinician can be drawn into the issue by two main pathways. The more straightforward is when a patient presents with a medical assessment form. It's the Driver Licencing Authority in each state which ultimately issues the driving permits and may require the recommendation of a medical professional. The other way is when the clinician detects a new or worsening condition in a patient who is already licenced. They are expected to warn their patients off driving and in some jurisdictions to report them to the DLA if this advice isn't being heeded.

Chapters
7:48     Legal expectations on a practitioner
17:20   Medical conditions affecting to fitness to drive
24:48   Considering age in driving performance
35:28   Approaching driving ‘retirement’
45:28   Updates to national standards

Guests
Dr Genevieve Yates FRACGP (Principal Medical Educator RACGP, MDA National's Education Services Advisory Group, Black Dog Institute)
Prof Roy Beran FRCP FAFPHM FRACP FRACGP FACLM (University of UNSW)
Marilyn Di Stefano PhD (Victorian Department of Transport and Planning)
Serge Zandegu (Victorian Department of Transport and Planning)

Production
Written and produced by Mic Cavazzini DPhil. Recording assistance in Melbourne from Sam Loy of Human/Ordinary. Music courtesy of Free Music Archive; 'John Stockton Slow Drag' and 'What True Self? Feels Bogus, Let's Watch Jason X' by Chris Zabriskie, 'Noir' by Daniel James Dolby, 'Hélice' by Monplaisir. Music licenced from Epidemic Sound includes ‘Knowledge is Power’ by Matt Large. 

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