Across the UK lifesaving medical treatment is being deployed by these unmanned vehicles. Drones are becoming increasingly effective against the battle with cancer and other diseases.
Cancer patients living on the Isle of Wight are being delivered fragile medicines via the drones in a trial organised by the NHS. Chemotherapy drugs can have short shelf lives which means patients often have to go to the mainland for treatment which can be an expensive trip. Drones cut the journey time to just 30 minutes as opposed to driving and ferrying the medication across from the mainland in four hours. Clinicians are able to make same-day orders from the mainland. Not only is this a boost in expediency but it also helps the NHS’s goal of becoming more carbon neutral and the technology saves fuel and money, simultaneously.
Drones are beginning to be used by many other hospitals in the UK. In sub-Saharan Africa, drones have been used to reach remote communities lacking adequate health provision. In Malawi drones have delivered childhood malaria, tuberculosis, polio and rotavirus vaccines. On the return trip they carried viral load test samples for processing at a central hospital.
Helping improve emergencies where people are in urgent need of help while experiencing heart attacks, a Swedish pilot has used drones to carry defibrillators. In many instances, the drones have beaten ambulances and in one case helped save the life of a 71-year-old cardiac arrest victim in Sweden.
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- drone_side-min-1800×0-c-center 2: Apian
