A drone could take that medicine to them where a vehicle wouldn’t be able to do so.”īeyond last year’s demonstration, the team at RAM also has been working with Dennis Strege, owner of MasterFlight Inc., to build a drone prototype specific for this application. “In that part of Virginia (where Let’s Fly Wisely took place), a large number of underserviced people can’t get out of the house during the winter, particularly during inclement weather, but are in desperate need of blood pressure medicine or whatever medicine it is. “It would be extremely helpful if we were able to send packages of medicine and vaccines over great distances by drone,” Brock said. Manned fixed-wing helicopters fly about every two days to take vaccines, snakebite serum and other medical supplies to remote villages, a more costly and complex operation as compared to using UAS. At the time, the group had just begun air ambulance operations to bring medicine and vaccines to parts of the upper Amazon rain forest. Stan Brock, founder and president of RAM, a nonprofit organization that provides medical care to remote areas, first became interested in deploying delivery drones a few years ago. Last summer, the company was part of the Let’s Fly Wisely event in Wise, Va., where they worked with the Remote Area Medical clinic (RAM), the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership at Virginia Tech (MAAP) and NASA to deliver medical packages to volunteers on the ground, who in turn made sure underserved attendees received the packages-marking the first time a UAS delivered medical supplies and pharmaceuticals in the US. This isn’t the first time Flirtey has completed successful missions for the health care field. The drones also transported medical supplies from the vessel to the onshore medical camp. During the demo the drones carried medical samples for emergency testing, flying them between an onshore medical relief camp at Cape May, N.J., and a test facility on a vessel off the New Jersey coast. The mission, held in conjunction with the John Hopkins University School of Medicine and the nonprofit Field Innovation Team (FIT), demonstrated how UAS can ferry aid such as medical supplies and water during a disaster situation, according to a press release. Extensive research is already being done in this area with some countries beginning to benefit from this type of UAS application.ĭrone manufacturer Flirtey recently completed the first ship-to-shore drone delivery in the U.S. The opportunities are there, which is why researchers, manufacturers and nonprofit organizations are starting to look to UAS to provide applications that boost efficiencies and improve medical outcomes.Īs drones are incorporated more into the health care industry, Tucker said the first area that will see the most benefit is delivery. Drones can help decrease those incidents.” Now transporting blood products between hospitals, for example, involves vehicles on the ground that are prone to accidents and delays. “Being able to cross long distances at faster speeds to deliver blood products and lab samples also is a huge benefit. Jeremy Tucker, vice president patient safety and regional medical director at MEP Health. “Drones are going to decrease the reliance on human beings that provide care and decrease the cost of assisting people,” said Dr. UAS offer a variety of exciting possibilities to the health care industry, possibilities that help save money as well as lives. They can transport medicine within hospital walls and courier blood between hospital buildings, as well as give elderly patients tools to support them as they age in place. Medical professionals from emergency responders and third world aid workers to time-stressed staffers in large hospitals face a host of challenges every day-challenges unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, can help overcome.ĭrones make it possible to deliver blood, vaccines, birth control, snake bite serum and other medical supplies to rural areas and have the ability to reach victims who require immediate medical attention within minutes, which in some cases could mean the difference between life and death. Providing communities with essential health care is no easy task.
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