Drones is the answer to medical accessibility for the future especially in rural areas. It will cut transportation time and improve access to light medical supplies. In 2018, studies by innovation foundation Nesta concluded drones can increase speed and reliability for improved patient care whole cutting down on costs. Matternet, a drone company based in Silicon Valley, has already started to team up with UPS for a medical sample delivery service at WakeMed’s hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina. Before this milestone, medical samples and specimen were transported through courier cars. Drones will now give an option for an efficient same-day delivery. It has already been pre-tested with over 3,000 healthcare test flights in Switzerland.
The drone is programmed to be able to travel up to 12.5 miles and carry up to 5 pounds. It will follow a predetermined flight path and will be monitored by a remote pilot. After that, it will go to a fixed landing pad at the final destination, the WakeMed’s main hospital and central pathology lab.
Other Rising Drone Companies
Besides Matternet, here is a list of other companies moving upwards with healthcare innovation:
- Flirtey – Start up company based in Nevada that is using drones to deliver defilibrators, EpiPens and opioid overdose antidotes
- EHang – In the works of establishing a drone to transport a human (organs).
- ZipLine – Start up in California that has a drone that can travel up to 79 miles per hour.
- Google – Google is working on their patent which will have a drone give medical attention to people in distress. They are working on an application to be able to summon and declare what type of emergency it is.
- Vagyu Drones – Similar to Matternet and Flirtey, Vayu focuses on delivering blood products, critical medications, surgical supplies and vaccines.
- Mosquito Control – Working on a project to better pest control by tracking mosquito larvae.
What do you hope to see in 2020 for drone innovation?
This article was created by Stephanie Sok, Business Researcher, Global Healthcare IT, Inc. with assistance from the following base line articles: For more on each please click on the link.
Stephanie can be reached on ssok@globalhit.com.
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ups-uses-drones-deliver-medical-samples
https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/Flying-High-full-report-and-appendices.pdf
