Dr. Jeffrey Keller, Hibernia National Bank/Edward G. Schleider Endowed Chair at LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and Sara Seifert, president of Minnesota HealthSolutions, have received a new National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research award to develop a digital health platform aimed at helping parents support teenagers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as they learn to drive, according to an Aug. 4 announcement.
The Phase I award of $353,306 is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and supports collaboration between Pennington Biomedical and Minnesota HealthSolutions. The project seeks to create a commercial product that meets the needs of teen drivers with ADHD and their parents by developing and testing a smartphone-based platform combining driving data, personalized coaching, and parent engagement strategies.
Driving requires attention, decision-making, memory, multitasking and quick physical responses. ADHD can affect many cognitive functions related to these skills, increasing the likelihood of distracted driving behaviors such as speeding or hard braking that are associated with crashes. Louisiana has the highest motor vehicle insurance costs in the United States; traffic crashes impose $10.5 billion in economic costs each year.
The new platform will use smartphone-based telematics to monitor driving behaviors while allowing parents and teens to set shared goals, receive personalized feedback, and track progress over time. The app is also designed to provide information for physicians about driving-related challenges associated with ADHD in order to support more informed treatment decisions.
The award builds on a previous NIH SBIR project led by Keller from 2022 to 2025 that developed the StreetCoach Safer Driver Program for older adults. That program evaluated more than 11,000 real-world drives and demonstrated feasibility for using digital technologies both to identify risky behaviors behind the wheel and deliver personalized interventions.
"This new project represents the next step in translating innovative research into commercially available and real-world solutions," Keller said. "By extending StreetCoach to families with teen drivers who have ADHD, we have the opportunity to improve roadway safety, reduce injuries and provide families with greater confidence as teens develop safe driving skills." Dr. Jennifer Rood said, "This award reflects the tremendous value of partnerships that bring together academic research and industry innovation to solve real-world health challenges... Programs like the NIH Small Business Innovation Research initiative are also critical because they help move promising discoveries beyond the laboratory... ensuring innovative technologies can reach people who need them most."
