Chicago DUI attorney thinks your doctor may ask about your texting while driving habit

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here, here, and here about texting while driving.  Still, she’s surprised that the medical community has taken note of this technological advance.

From The New England Journal of Medicine:

 

At the medical school and academic practice where I teach, students and residents routinely query patients about habits associated with harm, asking about the use of helmets, seat belts, condoms, cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs. There is little solid evidence that asking these screening questions has any benefit. But we continue to ask them — as I believe we should. And as technology evolves, our questions must be updated in keeping with the risks: it's time for us to ask patients about driving and distraction.

Although no direct correlation can be made, we know that counseling patients about dangerous behaviors can have powerful consequences. According to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, even 3 minutes spent discussing the risks of tobacco use increases the likelihood that a patient will quit smoking. Context matters.When a doctor raises an issue while providing overall preventive care, the message is different from that conveyed by a public service announcement nestled between ads for chips and beer or a printed warning on a product box.

Recently, I have added a question about driving and distraction to my annual patient review of health and safety. I begin with the customary seat-belt question. Then I ask, "Do you text while you drive?" Although I'm concerned about both texting and talking, most people are aware of the risks associated with texting, and many judge it more harshly. If a patient admits to texting while driving, I share my knowledge and concerns. Many patients who do not text while driving voice opinions about its dangers, giving me an opening to note that talking on the phone while driving actually causes more accidents than texting. Although I can share published data and often recommend that patients view the video described above, I find it more powerful simply to say that driving while distracted is roughly equivalent to driving drunk — a statement that captures both the inherent risks and the implied immorality.

I ask patients whether they could reduce or abstain from cell-phone use while driving. As with any plan for behavior modification, we need to understand the circumstances surrounding the activity. Many people have become accustomed to the diversion of talking on the phone while driving, and we're all susceptible to the allure of a new message or call. If patients tell me that occasionally they receive "important" phone calls they don't want to miss, we discuss what that means in the context of the risks. We talk about alternatives, including pulling over to make or take calls. I remind them that we all managed without mobile phones until recently and encourage them to return to the practices of the pre–cell-phone era. What can drivers do if they want to fill the resulting void? They can listen to the radio or a CD. They can pay attention to what they're doing and their surroundings, rather than attempt to multitask. We talk about practical solutions. I tell them about a driver who killed a woman while talking on his phone but couldn't restrain himself even after that horror. He now puts his phone in the trunk of his car before he gets behind the wheel. I talk about creating such a system for eliminating the risk.

Although I've encountered less resistance from patients than I'd anticipated, many do have questions. Most commonly, they ask why talking on the phone, even with a hands-free device, is more dangerous than talking to a passenger in their car. There are several reasons: first is the obvious risk associated with trying to maneuver a phone, but cognitive studies have also shown that we are unable to multitask and that neurons are diverted differently depending on whether we are talking on the phone or talking to a passenger.⁵ When patients aren't convinced, I ask them, "How would you feel if the surgeon removing your appendix talked on the phone — hands free, of course — while operating?" This hypothetical captures the essence of the problem — the challenge of concentrating fully on the task at hand while engaged in a phone conversation.

Weird isn’t it?  To think that at your next physical exam your doctor may ask not only about the number of drinks you consume; the number of partners you’ve had, how often you smoke; but whether you text or talk on your cell while driving.