ECE and WINLAB Professor Yingying Chen is the recipient of an award from the National Institute of Health R21 for the project “Smartphone App to Examine Effects of Cannabis Use on Driving Behavior.” This is a two-year collaborative project of $409,236 with Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Yingying serves as a MPI on this project.
Driving under the influence of cannabis (DUIC) nearly doubles car crash risk, with medical cannabis (MC) patients representing an at-risk group for DUIC. This R21 aims to advance efforts to reduce DUIC through the innovative combination of a smartphone app for objective detection of aberrant driving behaviors, Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), and biological sampling to examine effects of cannabis use on driving behavior in real-world conditions among MC patients. Study Phase will use qualitative data to refine the app and identify new app features to be added to prevent DUIC in future work. The innovative use of a smartphone app for objective detection of aberrant driving behavior, combined with EMA and biological sampling will provide important, new findings on effects (subjective and objective) of cannabis and compensatory "effort" on driving behavior in daily life in MC patients to enable urgently needed advances to reduce DUIC. More details on the project can be found at here: https://reporter.nih.gov/search/rODoT1uAjUGW_dzAnHdkoQ/projects
Congratulations to Yingying and the team!