Postgraduate Certificate in Traffic Medicine (Commencing September 2026)

Overview

The Postgraduate Certificate in Traffic Medicine in Trinity College Dublin is a unique learning programme offering specialist education and training in the emerging field of Traffic Medicine. This course introduces the principles of Traffic Medicine encompassing road safety, public and occupational health, psychology, rehabilitation and the theoretical frameworks underpinning traffic medicine. It further addresses transport mobility in Irish, European and global contexts.

The course will run from September 2026 to August 2027 and is fully online open to those with a health or allied health qualification only.

The PG Certificate aims to develop expertise in Traffic Medicine among health care professionals to support and enable safe transport mobility across the lifespan. The course provides learners with specialist knowledge, skills and understanding that enables them to:

• Advise patients about how medical conditions can affect driving and how to monitor and manage these conditions
• Make decisions about patients’ medical fitness to drive for driving licensing purposes
• Put traffic medicine theory and policies into practice to promote and support safe transport mobility for individuals/patients across all stages of life.

The course is designed to meet the needs of full-time health care and allied health practitioners seeking flexible, part-time online learning experience. Recognising the global demand and potential diverse time zones of this cohort, the course blends asynchronous and synchronous learning in a way that supports both structure and autonomy.

There are three modules each with 10 sessions (30 units in total) which will run weekly via Blackboard Ultra. Sessions follow a consistent, structured format comprising six key components: Prepare, Study, Apply/Reflect, Recall (optional), Extend (optional), and Synchronous. This scaffolding supports a flipped classroom pedagogy, where students explore foundational content independently before participating in live discussions and application activities. The format is specifically designed to enhance knowledge retention, critical thinking, and practical application in real-world professional contexts.

The modules will be delivered by Irish and international experts in the areas of road safety, engineering, occupational therapy, psychology and medicine. An outline of the module content is set out below.

Module Overview:

Module 1 Road Safety and Medical Fitness to Drive

• Safe System Approach & Vision Zero
• Road Safety as a Public Health issue
• Road Trauma in Irish Context /
• Major Trauma Audit and Road Traffic Collisions
• Understanding the driving task
• Where law meets medicine in fitness to drive
• Driver licensing laws & regulations PRAC DRIVA
• MFTD Guidelines
• MFTD assessment for licensing (on road assessment)
• MFTD assessment for licensing (off road assessment)
• Occupational Health and Driving for Work (G2 plus driving for work)

Module 2  Advanced Traffic Medicine: Evidence-based theory and practice

• Epilepsy
• Acquired brain injury, stroke and TIA
• Memory disorders, Dementia and Parkinsons
• Diabetes
• Visual disorders
• Cardiovascular disorders
• Respiratory & Sleep disorders
• Substance abuse and driving /
• Alcohol and drugs
• Psychiatric conditions
• Neurodevelopmental disorders

Module 3 Fitness to Drive Across the lifespan

• Driving as an enabler of community participation/retirement/driving cessation
• Younger drivers
• Medicines and driving
• Adult drivers including new technologies/human factors
• Adaptive Technologies 1: from Crash Safety Concepts to Products
• Adaptive Technologies 2: Vehicle Adaptations for disabled drivers
• Driver rehabilitation
• Older drivers
• Transport options
• Course Review

Application Process

Applications for this course are NOW OPEN.  Places are limited and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis for a quick decision.