Erasmus MC is conducting a pilot project with medical drones. In the project, Erasmus MC and Sanquin in collaboration with ANWB, PostNL and technology partners Aly and KPN are investigating the use of drones to transport blood, medicines and diagnostic samples to both patients and healthcare sites.
The pilot project bears the name Medical Drone Service. The pilot charts the contribution that drones can make to providing care at the right time and place. Jan-Dietert Brugma, pharmacist at Erasmus MC: "We see that the demand for customised care is increasing due to various reasons, while the accessibility of hospitals in city centres is coming under increasing pressure. With the Medical Drone Service initiative, we want to investigate how care can be brought closer to the patient in the neighbourhood. By deploying medical drones, we hope to shorten routes and thus organise care more quickly and efficiently."
Transporting blood faster and safer
Among other things, the pilot investigates the transport of blood products between the Sanquin Blood Bank and hospitals. This could make transport faster and safer. "By deploying a drone, an emergency delivery of blood, for example, does not have to use road transport. This is ultimately safer and perhaps even faster because a drone is not dependent on traffic and therefore does not have to deal with traffic jams or traffic lights," says Merlijn van Hasselt, spokesperson at Sanquin.
Some types of blood are so rare that only one bag of blood is available for a patient in the whole of the Netherlands. The pilot therefore also tests the use of drones to transport rare blood quickly and safely between two Sanquin locations.
Drone from Avy
The drone used during the pilot was developed and built by Dutch company Avy. This company focuses on developing drones for applications ranging from medical use to nature conservation and post-disaster relief. The drone used by the company for this purpose can cover a distance of up to 70 kilometres at a speed of up to 70 km per hour. The device can fly for up to an hour on a battery charge.
The drone operates fully autonomously, without control from the ground. The device can take off and land without requiring special infrastructure. The device can carry a payload of up to 1.5 kilograms.
Locating people underground
The Medical Drone Service is not the first project in which drones are being used for medical purposes. For example, a drone developed by researchers at Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Deventer can locate people buried underground, for instance following a building collapse.
Drones are also being used for medical purposes abroad. For example, in the United States, the drone start-up Flirtey uses drones to deliver defibrillators to patients suffering a heart attack. The use of drones helps to get Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) to patients more quickly. This means they can be defibrillated sooner, which increases their chances of survival. The American start-up Zipline previously raised $190 million from investors for a drone project. Zipline is using the money to set up hubs at 2,600 healthcare facilities in Rwanda and Ghana, where Zipline’s drones can deliver medical supplies.
Closer to home, Matternet is using autonomous drones to transport blood for blood transfusions and diagnostic samples between Swiss hospitals.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: ANWB
Source: Avy
