The following is a guest article by Greg James, VP of Business Development at DroneUp
The integration of drones in the healthcare industry holds immense potential to revolutionize the delivery of medical services. With their ability to overcome geographical barriers and streamline logistics, drones offer numerous benefits that can significantly enhance patient access to healthcare, ensure safer and more reliable deliveries, enable faster and more frequent distribution, and contribute to sustainability while lowering operational costs.
In this article, we’ll explore these four key advantages of employing drones in the healthcare sector, shedding light on the transformative impact they can have on the delivery of medical care.
Expand Patient Access to Healthcare
According to the National Institutes of Health, about 20% of Americans live in rural parts of the country. Many rural communities experience a lack of access to both grocery stores (and healthy food options) and doctors. Plus residents in many small towns don’t receive (home delivery) mail or packages causing some to pay $70-170/year for a PO Box.
Drone delivery offers an excellent solution by allowing patients to stay home and bypassing any limitations in rural infrastructure. Drones offer a distinctive means for delivering time-sensitive medical packages over short distances (approx. 1-3 mi), which will grow in the near future. DroneUp is actively working on projects that create access to prescriptions and virtual healthcare support for those in rural communities. The utilization of drones for healthcare service delivery has been extensively documented in humanitarian relief initiatives and in response to major natural disasters in remote areas worldwide and similar uses could be applied to reach rural residents in an emergency.
Create Safer and More Reliable Deliveries
Medical drone delivery eliminates some human steps in the distribution process, such as person-to-person contact. In addition, drone logistics alleviate many of the safety and delay challenges typically associated with road-based transportation, such as congestion, unplanned deliveries, and human error. Drone delivery can offer secure, contactless delivery for greater peace of mind.
During the height of the pandemic, Walmart conducted a pilot for drone delivery of at-home COVID-19 self-collection kits, as an innovative new way to provide additional, and contactless, testing options in North Las Vegas, NV and Cheektowaga, NY.
Ensure Faster and More Frequent Deliveries
On-demand patient care via drone delivery enables medical providers to issue critical medicinal supplies quicker than ever before. Patients can receive their prescriptions without needing to travel long distances or stand in line at the pharmacy and can also pre-plan prescription deliveries. This reduces financial losses due to patient non-adherence and leads to better business outcomes for hospitals. Drones can also maximize a healthcare provider’s ability to process lab work to transport patient samples. In addition, ground couriers operate at scheduled intervals. Having a drone delivery solution allows supplies to be sent as soon as they’re needed, increasing overall throughput and diagnostic turnaround time.
Carilion Clinic, a not–for–profit healthcare organization based in Roanoke, is currently investigating how drones can be used to improve healthcare delivery throughout Virginia and beyond with a proof-of-concept study to see if delivering crucial medical supplies can effectively be done using drone technology. The three-week trial began on June 9, 2023 with the focus on exploring the ways in which drones can be used to reduce delivery times and costs enabling frontline caregivers to spend more time with their patients. Delivering to 6 locations across campus, the results showed that drones can be a reliable delivery modality for Carilion, with delivery times averaging 10 minutes. The Hospital also operates MEDEVAC helicopter flights, so the teams worked together to determine standard operating procedures and technology to deconflict busy airspace.
Enhance Sustainability & Lower Operational Costs
The FAA recently stated that delivery packages via battery-powered drones would reduce the use of fossil fuels and curtail carbon emissions and the RAND think tank estimated that nearly 47 gallons of diesel fuel could be saved by shifting 20% of deliveries from trucks to drones.
Medical drone delivery enhances a healthcare provider’s environmental sustainability. Utilizing drones for deliveries – as opposed to vehicles – lowers energy consumption and reduces carbon emissions. As a result, logistics operations are more sustainable and leave a smaller carbon footprint. Delivery by drone is also done at a fraction of the cost of traditional ground delivery and in substantially less time.
Conclusion
Drones offer a multitude of benefits for the healthcare industry, ranging from expanding patient access and ensuring safer deliveries to enabling faster distribution and enhancing sustainability while reducing operational costs. As drone technology continues to advance and regulatory frameworks evolve, it is clear that drones have the potential to transform the healthcare landscape, improving the lives of patients and healthcare providers alike.
