ArticleOpen medicine : a peer-reviewed, independent, open-access journal2008
Mandatory reporting by physicians of patients potentially unfit to drive.
Article in Open medicine : a peer-reviewed, independent, open-access journal, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review of the impact of brain tumours on risk of motor vehicle crashes.Journal of neuro-oncology · 2024Pooled it
- Physician's Role in Managing Driver's Licenses for Older Adults: Implications for Korea.Annals of geriatric medicine and research · 2025Review
- Why Clinicians Do Not Counsel Patients for More Road Traffic Safety.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- Hepatic encephalopathy and driving safety: A survey of patient counseling and regulatory reporting by health care professionals in British Columbia, Canada.Canadian liver journal · 2024Article
- Life-threatening alcohol-related traffic crashes in adverse weather: a double-matched case-control analysis from Canada.BMJ open · 2019Article
- An International Approach to Enhancing a National Guideline on Driving and Dementia.Current psychiatry reports · 2018Review
- Clinical Action against Drunk Driving.PLoS medicine · 2017Article
- Self-Reporting by Unsafe Drivers Is, with Education, More Effective than Mandatory Reporting by Doctors.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2016Article
- Medical interventions to reduce motor vehicle collisions.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2014Review
- Assessing fitness to drive in brain tumour patients: a grey matter of law, ethics, and medicine.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2013Article
- Graduated drivers' licences for seniors: reclaiming one benefit of being young.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2012Article
- Fitness to drive in patients with brain tumours: the influence of mandatory reporting legislation on radiation oncologists in Canada.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2012Article
- Age-based testing for driver's license renewal: potential implications for older Australians.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2011Article
- Road trauma in teenage male youth with childhood disruptive behavior disorders: a population based analysis.PLoS medicine · 2010Article
- Motor vehicle crashes in diabetic patients with tight glycemic control: a population-based case control analysis.PLoS medicine · 2009Article
- Determining medical fitness to drive: physicians need support.Open medicine : a peer-reviewed, independent, open-access journal · 2008Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOne strategy for the prevention of motor vehicle crashes is physician reporting of medically unfit drivers to vehicle licensing authorities, as mandated by law in Ontario, Canada. We studied drivers involved in life-threatening crashes who required hospital admission to determine how many had previously been seen and reported by a physician in the community.
methodsWe identified consecutive drivers involved in a crash who were admitted to Canada's largest trauma centre between 30 June 1996 and 30 June 2001 to assess the prevalence of 3 chronic medical conditions reportable to vehicle licensing authorities (alcohol abuse, cardiac disease, and neurological disorders). We then conducted a case series analysis of linked health and transportation databases to determine how many drivers had previously been seen and reported by a physician in the community.
resultsA total of 1,605 injured drivers were identified, of whom 37% had a reportable condition (95% confidence interval [CI] 35-39). Those with a reportable condition had made a total of 20,505 previous visits to 2,332 physicians during the five years before the crash. The majority of patients with a reportable condition (85%, 95% CI 82-88) had seen a physician in the year before the crash but few (3%, 95% CI 2-4) had been reported to licensing authorities. Alcohol abuse was the most common underlying reportable condition (prevalent in 72% of trauma patients with a reportable condition) and the least common reason for a previous report (reported in 2% of those with a reportable condition).
interpretationUnsafe drivers often visit physicians and yet are rarely reported to licensing authorities even under mandatory reporting laws for preventive medical reporting.
Identifiers
21602950PMC3091591What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.