Classen, S., & Brooks, J. (2014). Consensus statements for driving simulators for occupational therapy screening, assessment, and intervention. Occupational Therapy in Health Care, 28 (2), 154-162.
For assessing operational and tactical driver behaviors, simulator technology can be used to provide safe, objective, and repeatable performance measures. There has been growing support in the literature for the association between simulated technology and actual on-road driving. Based on the literature, this paper presents five consensus statements to support the use of driving simulators in occupational therapy: 1) detect underlying impairments in driving performance; 2) identify driving errors in at-risk drivers; 3) differentiate between driving performance of impaired and healthy control groups; 4) show driving errors with absolute and relative validity compared to on-road studied; and 5) mitigate the onset of simulator sickness. Although occupational therapy researchers and practitioners have advanced the use of driving simulation technology over the last decade, more empirical support is needed to further validate the use of a driving simulator in clinical practice settings.