About the Product
DriveSafe DriveAware (DSDA) is a clinician-facing decision support tool.
DSDA is intended for use by qualified health professionals as one component of a broader clinical assessment of cognitive factors relevant to fitness to drive; it provides structured tasks and captures clinician-entered observations and patient responses to support clinical assessment.
The touchscreen DriveSafe DriveAware (DSDA) iPad application is based on research conducted by the University of Sydney. It is a screen of cognitive fitness-to-drive. Scores place drivers into “likely to pass”, “further testing” and “likely to fail” categories.
DSDA stands out among other cognitive fitness-to-drive screens because it is the only test practical for medical practice that has been shown in peer-reviewed academic research to accurately classify test performance in terms of likely on-road driving performance.
The specificity of the iPad version is 86%, sensitivity 91%, positive predictive value 83%, negative predictive value 92%, and overall accuracy of classification 88%.
Criteria for a useful and valid driver screen tool.
For more than 25 years, researchers have examined the requirements for a cognitive test that can accurately predict driving performance without testing drivers on the road. The following criteria has been set by researchers for a useful and valid driver screen tool:
Evidence-based cut-off scores
Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value calculated and over 80%
Two cut-off scores allowing categorisation of patients into pass, fail, and further testing categories
A small percentage (10-20%) of drivers classified ‘further testing’ for clinical utility
Simple and brief to administer
Highface validity (i.e., patients will accept the test as related to real-world driving)
Comparison against a standardised OTDA on-road assessment as the criterion measure in research
DriveSafe DriveAware is the ONLY cognitive driver screening test available that meets all of these design criteria.
Others in the market.
There are other tools that clinicians use to predict ability to drive. Many neuropsychological tests commonly used to screen drivers have sensitivity and specificity either not calculated or well below an acceptable level for accurately predicting driving performance. Tests that rely on statistically significant relationships (e.g., correlations) are not sufficiently accurate to predict on-road performance. They also do not meet the optimum driver screening test criteria listed. Therefore, these tests are not suitable to use alone to predict driving performance.
Occupational therapists at the University of Sydney developed DriveSafe DriveAware over 30 years ago. This test is unique because it does not attempt to break driving down into component tasks (e.g., memory, reaction time and visual-perception etc.) but takes a top-down, whole-task approach. This brief and accurate test has been well researched and updated over time.
So, when comparing other tools to DriveSafe DriveAware, please ask yourself:
Are there evidence-based cut-off scores?
Is the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value over 80%?
Is it simple and brief to administer?
Does it have high face validity? (i.e. will patients accept the test as related to real-world driving)?
Has it been compared against a standardised OTDA on-road assessment as the criterion measure in research?
Since 2015, DriveSafe DriveAware has established itself as the optimum driver screening tool as it meets the optimum driver screening design with evidence of sound psychometric properties and sufficient sensitivity, specificity and predictive validity to predict driving performance, and test-retest reliability.
DSDA Published Research
A current list of published research by year is available for download here: