User-friendliness of a Portable Driving Simulator

Summary

The use of simulators to retrain driving skills of patients with stroke, Parkinson's disease (PD), or multiple sclerosis (MS) is very limited because of cost, space required, and incidence of simulator sickness in high fidelity simulators. The Principal investigator recently developed a low cost low fidelity portable driving simulator (PDS). In this pilot study, the study team will (1) determine the ease of use and occurrence of simulator sickness while operating the low fidelity PDS in a clinic setting and (2) the efficacy of the low fidelity PDS to reproduce the benefits from retraining impaired driving skills of stroke survivors in a high-fidelity simulator.

Participants: 30 participants, separated according to neurological condition including stroke, PD, or MS, will be randomly allocated to either the PDS or fixed-base high-fidelity simulator training. Each participant will undergo a pre-training evaluation, five hours of designated training and a post-training assessment, similar to the pre-training evaluation. Data will be analyzed according to study aims.

The investigators hypothesize that the simple set up of the PDS will make it easier to use and better decrease the incidence of simulator sickness that typically leads to stopping therapy than the high-fidelity simulator.

The investigators hypothesize that improvements in lane maintenance, adherence to speed limits, reaction to traffic lights, and overall reaction time after training using the PDS will not be significantly different from improvements observed after training using the high-fidelity driving simulator.

Conditions

• Parkinson Disease
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Stroke

Interventions

DEVICE

Low-Fidelity PDS

The principal investigator recently developed a low cost ($10,000) low fidelity portable driving simulator (PDS) in the University of Kansas Laboratory for Advanced Rehabilitation Research in Simulation (LARRS) that measures 25.5" Wide, 32.5" High, and 25" Deep and requires only approximately 4 square feet of space. This intervention uses the PDS to retrain study participants and improve their driving related skills.

DEVICE

High Fidelity Fixed-Base Simulator

This intervention uses the large high-fidelity fixed-base driving simulator to retrain study participants and improve their driving related skills.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Kansas Medical Center

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Abiodun Akinwuntan, PhD, MPH MBA · University of Kansas School of Health Professions

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

25 Years

Max Age

75 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-08-28

Primary Completion

2025-06-30

Completion

2025-06-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations