Staying Active

Physician's Research Focuses on Driving Safety

Listen to Dr. Sims' discussion:

Richard Sims,, M.D., chose the topic of driving safety as a focus of his research because of its importance to the autonomy and mobility of older drivers. Sims is a geriatrician with the UAB Center for Aging and the VA Medical Center.

"I found that most of my research dealt with the issue of safe driving among older adults," Sims says. "For a number of years I investigated the issue of how we can best identify older drivers who are crash-prone or who might be unsafe.

"It's a big issue, because taking away the keys from an older adult can be a major impediment to independence-particularly here in the state of Alabama where we have no real alternatives to the car. Most older adults feel very threatened by having their keys taken away, and of course that's very understandable."

Most older drivers are safe, Sims points out, but there are many others who clearly should not be driving.

"There's a group in between," Sims says, "where it's not so obvious whether they should be driving or not. These are the individuals who should be evaluated. It's possible that there are some reversible deficits, either in their vision or medications or physical health, that can be treated so that these patients can become safer drivers. Finding out more about that segment of our population is our main research focus at the moment."

A downloadable audio file of Dr. Sims' article is also available.