Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Medical Standards Update and Development Program: Turning Evidence into Policy

The mission of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) Office of Medical Programs is to promote the safety of America's roadways through the promulgation and implementation of medical regulations, guidelines and policies that ensure commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers engaged in interstate commerce are physically qualified to do so. To inform the updating of existing, and development of new physical qualification standards, the FMCSA has developed a process that uses the best available scientific evidence combined with input from panels of medical experts. In developing physical qualification standards for CMV driving, FMCSA must balance their role of protecting individuals from harm with the greater needs of society. While the elimination of all sources of risk associated with medical conditions is unattainable, policymakers and other regulators of transportation safety are tasked with ensuring that these risks are reduced as much as is reasonably possible. Therefore, the FMCSA Office of Medical Programs uses a risk-based decision-making process in order to quantify the risks that are associated with different strategies for crash reduction, so that the decision-making process can be based on a best assessment of the likely benefits. In this session, we will provide an overview of the FMCSA Office of Medical Programs' framework for assessing and managing crash risk in policymaking and the process that is used for risk assessment and management.