Initiated in 2002, the Canadian Driving Research Initiative for Vehicular Safety in the Elderly (Candrive) is an interdisciplinary health related research program dedicated to improving the safety of older drivers. It is funded by a Team Grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Candrive also receives support from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

Candrive's aim is to improve the health, safety and quality-of-life of Canada's older drivers.

Candrive's vision is to establish a national multi-disciplinary collaborative approach to identify, analyze and examine the issues pertaining to the safe operation of vehicles by older persons.

One of the goals of the Candrive research program is to find a way to extend the length of time that older drivers can drive. Candrive will examine both the effectiveness of retraining programs and the use of customized or restricted licensing for older drivers who might automatically have had their licence revoked. Unfortunately, even if such measures prove useful, there will still be a small minority of older drivers who are no longer safe to drive. By identifying this minority as early as possible, the program will help protect the reputation, public image and rights of the majority of older drivers who represent the safest and most experienced drivers on the road.

Another very important goal of Candrive is to develop a screening tool that will allow clinicians to identify which older drivers, for whatever reason, are unsafe to continue operating a motor vehicle or require more in-depth evaluation.  Read more...