FAQs – GENERAL ^ TOP
1. How long has the DRUID app been available?
The DRUID® app has been available since 2016 and has been downloaded over 25,000 times. DRUID’s management portal, DRUID Enterprise, has been available since 2020.
2. How long does the test take?
DRUID users can select between 4 different version of the test, each with its own duration:
- The 1-minute DRUID Rapid test is best suited for regular workplace use
- The 3-minute DRUID Benchmark test is best suited for academic scientific use
- The 2-minute DRUID Touch test is intended only for those individuals who are unable to balance safely on one leg, a task required by all other versions of the app
- The 15-second DRUID Lightning test is a pass/fail test for those organizations that seek nearly immediate access for their workforce to the jobsite
3. How does the test work?
The app was developed to detect and measure an individual’s cognitive and psychomotor capabilities. Each DRUID test takes several thousand measurements of key neurophysiological indicators, including reaction time, hand-eye coordination, decision-making, time estimation, divided attention, and balance, except for DRUID Lightning which measures balance only. The measures are integrated into an algorithm that scores individuals against well-established cognitive and motor impairment indicators. High DRUID scores indicate impairment, lower scores indicate less, or no, impairment. DRUID Lightning is pass/fail only.
4. On what devices does the app run?
DRUID is a mobile app compatible with all iOS and Android telephones and tablets.
5. Is there an enterprise version available?
Yes. DRUID Enterprise is a cloud-based management portal and database which records and stores all DRUID test scores in real time, allows analysis of individual or groups scores over any period of time by filtering for age, score, work shift, location, or any other variable, and provides administrative functions including automated alerts, scheduling, and data downloading.
6. Does DRUID detect the presence of drugs or alcohol?
DRUID detects impairment from any cause, including from drugs, alcohol, fatigue, illness, injury, chronic condition, severe emotional stress, or environmental conditions (such as extreme heat, cold, or altitude). DRUID does not detect whether drugs or alcohol are bodily present, nor does it identify the cause of the impairment.
7. Is the test accurate?
DRUID’s accuracy has been calibrated against well-established standards measuring the impairment caused by elevated levels of blood alcohol (BAC). DRUID is the only impairment technology that has a substantial number of peer-reviewed, published, scientific studies – 22 by current count - validating its accuracy. Researchers around the world - including from Colorado State University, Johns Hopkins University Medical School, UCLA, University of Colorado, University of Iowa, Swinburne University (Australia), Washington State University, University of Massachusetts, Utrecht University (Netherlands), and others - are currently using DRUID for their own impairment research as a quick, objective, quantitative, inexpensive, and accurate impairment testing device. Research conducted under a grant to Impairment Science by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine concluded in a study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology that DRUID app “was the most sensitive measure of impairment when compared to the other cognitive performance tasks administered… ”
8. If a DRUID test indicates impairment, does it mean that the test-taker has done something illegal?
No. DRUID detects impairment due to any cause, but it is does not detect or identify the specific cause. If a DRUID test indicates impairment, it could be from any cause, including drugs, fatigue, illness, chronic condition, severe emotional stress, environmental conditions, legal or illegal drugs, or alcohol.
9. Are false positive scores possible?
False positives can occur only under two circumstances. One, the first few times you take the test, if your scores are elevated, you may not be familiar enough, or have practiced enough, to be proficient. All new users initially need to practice DRUID a minimum of 3 times in order to establish a score demonstrating what is normal for them. The app guides you through these practices. Two, a falsely elevated score may be caused if the user is distracted or interrupted during a test, or is jostled during the balance portion of the test. If so, simply take the test again. If the score remains high, it’s likely that you are impaired.
10. Can DRUID baseline scores change?
The DRUID baseline score is a rolling calculation of the individual’s unimpaired DRUID scores. Once well established (usually after at least 3 practice tests), a baseline score remains remarkably consistent, making it a reliable comparison point against which to assess whether any current score deviates from that person’s “normal.” Because of the random nature of the stimuli presented by the DRUID tasks (except the balance task), familiarity over time with the test (after completion of the practice tests) has only minimal effect on baseline score. Indeed, the more you do the test, the more accurate is your baseline. Repeated test-taking with DRUID does not create a “learning effect” that corrupts the score’s validity.
Baseline score is, however, subject to change. If a user suffers from a chronic condition affecting cognition (such as stroke, depression, or chronic use of alcohol or drugs), or from an injury affecting balance (such as concussion, or injury to foot, ankle, knee, hip, or back), baseline score will reflect those setbacks and will adjust to a “new normal.” Users suffering such chronic conditions or injuries can use incremental changes to their baseline to assess their cognitive or physical improvement, decline, or stability.
Assuming no chronic condition or physical injury, however, a baseline score is difficult to improve. Your best score represents your cognitive and physical limits. A sudden and significant improvement in current score versus baseline likely indicates cheating. But cognitive and physical limits can, over time, be overcome. Athletes do it all the time. Diligent commitment to exercises that improve hand-eye coordination or balance - skills tested by DRUID - can lead to incremental improvement in DRUID score. Thus, DRUID is being used by serious athletes seeking to monitor their performance and improvement. Because such improvements are subject to the law of diminishing returns, a measuring device sensitive even to small degrees of change, as is DRUID, can be particularly useful to individuals, like athletes, wishing to push their limits.
11. Can you cheat the DRUID test?
There are two ways an individual can attempt to manipulate DRUID testing: (1) by generating an artificially high score, or (2) an artificially low score.
High Score - Trying to Manipulate a Current Test Score
An individual seeking to avoid work may try to manipulate a current test score by deliberately performing poorly. This would result in a score significantly above the individual's baseline score and would create the appearance of being unfit for duty. ISI's recommended protocol for dealing with high scores is always to have the individual take the test again, one or more times, in the presence of a supervisor.
- If the repeated test does not confirm the first test and is significantly lower than the first test, then the high score of the first test was likely to due solely to inattention or interruption and the individual is likely fit for duty.
- If, however, repeated tests show scores significantly higher than baseline and those scores are all within 1- 3 points of each other, then the consistency of those high scores indicates their legitimacy and the individual may, indeed, not be fit for duty.
- But if repeated testing shows elevated scores, each varying significantly from one another, then this would be an indication that the individual may be trying to manipulate the test.
An individual trying to manipulate the test for a higher current score is not likely to be able to repeat the same artificially-elevated score multiple times in a row. Doing so would require the individual to make nearly identical poor-performance adjustments to one or more of the test’s tasks.
For example, if an individual were trying to manipulate performance of the test's balance task, he would have to re-enact precisely the same actions, causing precisely the same degree of balance instability that would increase his score on successive tests by the same amount. He would, in short, have to repeatedly duplicate the same amount of "wobble." Because DRUID is sensitive to the finest movements, such duplication would be nearly impossible, causing inconsistent successive scores, and revealing the attempt to cheat.
High Score - Trying to Manipulate a Baseline Score
The same can be said for someone trying to manipulate the baseline score in order to avoid detection of future impairment. The mistaken idea is that an artificially inflated baseline would mask actual impairment when it occurs. To do so, an individual would have to create and maintain a consistently false elevated baseline over time. Then, when knowingly impaired, take the test in earnest, without attempting to manipulate it, in the hope that the current score would match the artificially high baseline score. DRUID is too sensitive and too consistent for someone to be able to pull off this trick.
Low Score - Cheating to Generate a Low Score
Where DRUID is deployed in a supervised setting, even when tests are taken together by a group of 25 workers or more, cheating is extremely unlikely. Where, however, DRUID is being used without supervision, individuals can attempt to cheat DRUID on the balance task (by standing on two legs instead of one or by holding onto a steady object) or by having an unimpaired person take the test for them.
Features have been built into DRUID to defeat cheating on the balance task and to require user authentication, thus permitting DRUID to be used anywhere and anytime.
12. Who owns the data stored in DRUID Enterprise?
All data stored in DRUID Enterprise by a licensee is owned by that licensee.
13. What is the National Safety Council’s stance on impairment testing?
“Impairment is often a hidden risk that prevents workers from being at their best and able to perform safely. On the roadway and at work, impairment can kill. It also impacts business’ bottom line… NSC is calling on employers to take a broad approach to addressing workplace impairment. Specifically, NSC urges that employer policies and procedures define workplace impairment as anything that could impede one's ability to function normally or safely – from chemical substances, such as alcohol, opioids or cannabis, to physical factors like fatigue, as well as mental distress and social factors like stress. Most employers surveyed – 93% – agree with this broader description.” (https://www.nsc.org/impairment)