There’s an old problem for law enforcement when it comes to cannabis, and that is trying to prove impairment definitively. A simple blood or breath test just doesn’t work like it does with alcohol. The problem is now being tackled with very new technology, including one of the most advanced driving simulators in the world — in downtown Toronto.

Tracy Milner is a former occupational therapist and co-founder and CEO of BrainFX, an Ontario-based company. It has developed a proprietary, tablet-based cognitive testing system, often used on patients with neurological problems to assess brain function and aid in rehabilitation. Milner realized the technology’s potential beyond health issues.

“If you have cannabis in your system, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are impaired,” she says. “What we wanted to know was, in addition to knowing chemically if it’s in someone’s system, can you also determine impairment cognitively?”

The problem is, the BrainFX 360 test takes more than an hour; not exactly ideal for roadside checks. So, the first step in the study was to find the metrics of testing: What questions or actions on a tablet are necessary to decide drug impairment?

BrainFX first partnered with Apollo Applied Research, which surveyed 500 people to whittle down the testing procedure.

To truly have accurate results, you have to also test people behind the wheel of a car. Of course, you can’t exactly have them intoxicated on public roads, either. Enter, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.

Four stories below the hospital, on University Avenue in Toronto, is DriverLab, a $4 million driving simulator built in 2017 specifically for these kinds of testing purposes. It’s basically a large dome that houses a real Audi A3; the inside of the dome is a screen for a series of projectors that make a 360-degree driving experience, while the Audi is mounted on a turntable for a realistic feel. For a more “real” immersive experience, the whole dome can be lifted by a crane and mounted on a hydraulic platform to simulate braking and acceleration forces.

Dr. Andrea Furlan is a doctor and scientist at Toronto Rehab; the hospital has partnered with BrainFX and she’s the lead on the study to evaluate its tablet tests.

BrainFX first partnered with Apollo Applied Research, which surveyed 500 people to whittle down the testing procedure.

“When I prescribe something I have to rely on what people tell me, about how long ago they took cannabis, a few hours and such,” she says. “But we don’t have any objective measures to detect impairment.

“So BrainFX developed this tablet. The person would answer questions, those tests would measure the speed of their reactions, it would measure if their attention is optimal, their concentration, their memory — all of those that are important for driving.”

The first part of the study – the whittling down of metrics – is over. The second part is soon to start, with Toronto Rehab enlisting 160 people, some using drugs under the hospital’s control, to “take the wheel” on a challenging drive. The idea is to compare results of the tablet versus results of people driving to see if they correlate.

“We’ll perform these [tablet] tests and we’ll determine who is impaired and who is not, then we’ll use the DriverLab and they will drive,” says Furlan. “We are designing a scenario, a driving course, that is specifically designed for this purpose. It’s a 30-minute drive with challenging situations that we know people who are impaired will find problematic.

“We designed it to simulate real life. If you’re driving a car on roads, you can’t just simulate dangers, but here we can. It’s perfectly safe.”

With testing, data collection and analysis, Furlan expects the study to conclude by the end of the year. But as with almost all studies done by Toronto Rehab, it’s not just about collecting data. The hospital prides itself on the combination of laboratory research and real-world results, the main reason BrainFX partnered with them.

Milner has included law enforcement and other entities, such as corporations with large vehicle fleets, as stakeholders and advisors on the project. “They talk to us about how it can be applied in their settings, in informing us as to how they might use the system.

“But for us,” she says, “what we’re hoping to do is produce a useful, viable screening that will help people make better decisions about driving.”