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New research shows that ridesharing services has dramatically reduced trauma stemming from car accidents

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We all hope for a breakthrough in the cure for cancer. Thankfully, scientists are making progress in the fight against this and many other devastating diseases. But on occasion, an innovation well outside of the healthcare sector can make a big difference in matters of life and death. And is there one such innovation where older people are missing out?

New research shows that the introduction of ridesharing services has dramatically reduced trauma stemming from car accidents. This isn’t the first such study, but it adds to a mounting collection of studies with findings that allow for better planning and decision-making.

Ridesharing companies, like Uber, Lyft and another 88 or so competitors globally, have been in operation for about a decade, and the business model that depends on web applications and mobile app technology has proliferated to nearly every large city around the world.

Since the first studies were conducted to measure the impact of ride share services on human health, the results have been mixed. The great hope, of course, has been for a reduction in the incidence of drunk driving. Initial studies were inconclusive.

But with the passage of time and the growth of available data, studies from New York City to San Francisco have delved into more detailed analysis, looking not only at traffic fatalities, but also taking into account rates of tourism, access to public transportation, and timing of ride shares and alcohol related accidents.

Consumer behaviour offers another lens. Uber, the largest global company, reports that nearly 80% of riders claim to have avoided drinking and driving at least once thanks to the service.

What does the latest research show? A newly released study, conducted by researchers at the University of Texas and published in JAMA Surgery, used hospital trauma data, rideshare volume and impaired driving convictions to compare the seven-year period prior to Uber introduction with a comparable set of years post Uber introduction. It involved data on more than 24 million Uber rides. They found a 23.8% decrease in motor vehicle crash traumas. What’s most interesting is that this decrease was measured during peak trauma periods (Friday and Saturday nights).

It makes sense, as this is when the younger demographic of rideshare users are heading out to socialize. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine the best calculations for city managers rapidly granting permits to transform outdoor spaces into dining patios and sidewalk bars. Promoting ride share programs will help all those with pent up enthusiasm for social drinking get home safe and sound.

Who is not benefiting from these perks of ride share programs? Research shows that older adults are uninformed about how ridesharing works. The process of hailing a ride with their smartphones presents a technological gulf that is not being addressed. In addition, research has found that they are particularly concerned about their safety with regard to unknown ride share drivers.

As a result, seniors tend to be driving their own cars or not going out – neither of which may be in their best interest.

Will the arrival of fully autonomous vehicles make the difference? Perhaps not for skittish seniors, but driverless cars will solve one of the concerns about ride share programs – distracted rideshare drivers looking at their phones for information.

As we move ever more boldly into the post-pandemic new era, wouldn’t it be nice if we could harness more innovations like ridesharing to make the world a healthier place? Where is the next big breakthrough?

What do you think?

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Written by W. Gifford-Jones MD & Diana Gifford-Jones

Dr. W. Gifford-Jones, MD is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Harvard Medical School. He trained in general surgery at Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, Montreal General Hospital, McGill University and in Gynecology at Harvard. His storied medical career began as a general practitioner, ship’s surgeon, and hotel doctor. For more than 40 years, he specialized in gynecology, devoting his practice to the formative issues of women’s health. In 1975, he launched his weekly medical column that has been published by national and local Canadian and U.S. newspapers. Today, the readership remains over seven million.

His advice contains a solid dose of common sense and he never sits on the fence with controversial issues. He is the author of nine books including, “The Healthy Barmaid”, his autobiography “You’re Going To Do What?”, “What I Learned as a Medical Journalist”, and “90+ How I Got There!”

Many years ago, he was successful in a fight to legalize heroin to help ease the pain of terminal cancer patients. His foundation at that time donated $500,000 to establish the Gifford-Jones Professorship in Pain Control and Palliative Care at the University of Toronto Medical School. At 93 years of age he rappelled from the top of Toronto’s City Hall (30 stories) to raise funds for children with a life-threatening disease through the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Diana Gifford-Jones, the daughter of W. Gifford-Jones, MD, Diana has extensive global experience in health and healthcare policy. Diana is Special Advisor with The Aga Khan University, which operates 2 quaternary care hospitals and numerous secondary hospitals, medical centres, pharmacies, and laboratories in South Asia and Africa. She worked for ten years in the Human Development sectors at the World Bank, including health policy and economics, nutrition, and population health.

For over a decade at The Conference Board of Canada, she managed four health-related executive networks, including the Roundtable on Socio-Economic Determinants of Health, the Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management, the Canadian Centre for Environmental Health, and the Centre for Health System Design and Management. Her master’s degree in public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government included coursework at Harvard Medical School. She is also a graduate of Wellesley College. She has extensive experience with Canadian universities, including at Carleton University, where she was the Executive Director of the Global Academy. She lived and worked in Japan for four years and speaks Japanese fluently. Diana has the designation as a certified Chartered Director from The Directors College, a joint venture of The Conference Board of Canada and McMaster University. She has recently published a book on the natural health philosophy of W. Gifford-Jones, called No Nonsense Health – Naturally!

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