The purpose of this Full and Open Contract with CME provider is to engage physicians pharmacists, nurses, and other medi[pcal professionals on their role in maintaining older driver safety.

When older people are asked who they prefer to hear bad news from regarding motor vehicle operation, physicians and other health care providers rank among the top individuals, even higher than most family members. Health care providers have the best interests of the patient/client at the center of their treatment plans. They are adept at balancing patient autonomy with patient safety. Health care providers also have credibility because they know how age-related changes can influence an individual's functional abilities and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). According to survey responses, medical professionals are not confident in their skills and knowledge in the IADL of community mobility and in the ways that functional deficits can influence an individual's ability to safely operate a motor vehicle. Because health care providers lack confidence in their abilities to discuss and treat the issue of safe driving with their patients, they all-too-often avoid bringing it up. Failure to raise issues regarding safe motor vehicle operation with older drivers impacts motor vehicle safety. This is a disservice to their at-risk patients and other road users, To address these concerns, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has engaged in partnerships, collaborations, and contracts for more than a decade with outside organizations, such as the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), Medscape CME, and the Alzheimer's Association. Initially, NHTSA focused on developing training that allowed participants to claim continuing medical education (CME) and continuing education (CE) credits for participating, but there were drawbacks. For example, the AMA training initially required multiple hours of reading to qualify for CME credits that participants had to request via fax. Medscape CME offered a CME course to pharmacists (the target audience of the training),but reported other professionals (e.g., nurses, dentists, physicians) took the course for no credit. This course required a time commitment on the part of the health care providers who participated. NHTSA would like to increase the number medical professionals that participate in this course. An issue to be considered in NHTSA's efforts is the concept of "government works," which means that taxpayer-funded materials must be made available at no charge to the public. NHTSA recognizes that there are costs associated with administration of CME/CE credits that are outside of the content of the educational materials, and outside of the interest of the agency. To accommodate these needs, one approach is to make the course content available to the public without charge, but the CME/CE post-test and the tracking of credits be the responsibility of the other agency, with participants charged for those. Work with the Alzheimer's Association did not entail CME/CE credits, but it did promote discussions of driving through sample "no driving" prescription pads, and direct outreach to physicians who work with dementia patients.