Francesco Chirico, Alessandro Ciprani, Sergio Garbarino, Gianluigi Oggionni, Nicola Magnavita
{"title":"Fitness to Drive: It is Time for Evidence-Based Consensus and Italian Guidelines for Medical Driving Assessment.","authors":"Francesco Chirico, Alessandro Ciprani, Sergio Garbarino, Gianluigi Oggionni, Nicola Magnavita","doi":"10.1080/01947648.2024.2355466","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>European Union (EU) and non-EU countries have adopted different medical procedures for the issuance and renewal of a driver's license showing relevant matters of concern. In Europe, EU directives have been only partially supplemented with national laws, and there is a paucity of evidence-based criteria and methods for fitness-to-drive assessment. For instance, there is no agreement on standards for establishing which is the competent authority charged with the medical examination. Furthermore, license conditions, restrictions, or vehicle modifications, which appear as \"limited use\" codes on the driver's license are not regulated. This may generate confusion and deformity when it comes to the medico-legal evaluation, with potential ethical implications due to lack of transparency and equity and legal disputes between citizens and competent authorities. In this article, Italian experts on fitness-to-drive medical assessment highlight some major issues concerning the medical driving assessment activity in the EU. The Italian experience is shown as a case study, which is representative of other EU member states, for launching a call for evidence-based consensus documents and scientific guidelines on this topic, which may be helpful to international regulators and medico-legal stakeholders.</p>","PeriodicalId":44014,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Legal Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"19-33"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Legal Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01947648.2024.2355466","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/6/3 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"LAW","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
European Union (EU) and non-EU countries have adopted different medical procedures for the issuance and renewal of a driver's license showing relevant matters of concern. In Europe, EU directives have been only partially supplemented with national laws, and there is a paucity of evidence-based criteria and methods for fitness-to-drive assessment. For instance, there is no agreement on standards for establishing which is the competent authority charged with the medical examination. Furthermore, license conditions, restrictions, or vehicle modifications, which appear as "limited use" codes on the driver's license are not regulated. This may generate confusion and deformity when it comes to the medico-legal evaluation, with potential ethical implications due to lack of transparency and equity and legal disputes between citizens and competent authorities. In this article, Italian experts on fitness-to-drive medical assessment highlight some major issues concerning the medical driving assessment activity in the EU. The Italian experience is shown as a case study, which is representative of other EU member states, for launching a call for evidence-based consensus documents and scientific guidelines on this topic, which may be helpful to international regulators and medico-legal stakeholders.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Legal Medicine is the official quarterly publication of the American College of Legal Medicine (ACLM). Incorporated in 1960, the ACLM has among its objectives the fostering and encouragement of research and study in the field of legal medicine. The Journal of Legal Medicine is internationally circulated and includes articles and commentaries on topics of interest in legal medicine, health law and policy, professional liability, hospital law, food and drug law, medical legal research and education, the history of legal medicine, and a broad range of other related topics. Book review essays, featuring leading contributions to the field, are included in each issue.