Drones For Drug Delivery: Why A Bengaluru Firm Is Testing Drones For Medicine Delivery
Engineers at Bengaluru-based firm Throttle Aerospace Systems are testing drones designed to deliver medicines to patients in Gauribidanur, about 80 kms from the city. The company is running a six-week trial to see how effectively, accurately and quickly drones can be used to deliver medicines. The drone developed for the purpose is called Med Copter and can carry items weighing up to 2 kilograms.
Additional Information:
India’s first medical delivery platform & medical drone delivery demo in 2020 to DGCA & MoCA
The delivery works on a hub-and-spoke model. The team gets a message on the inventory needed. This is loaded at the central hub , and the drones take off, after the regular pre-flight tests and checks of wind conditions, audio pilot systems, and GPS tracker. The coordinates are fed into the systems and the health examiner picks up the vials at the drop-off point.
“The State is looking to harness benefits of emerging technologies to improve health outcomes by cutting down on lead time for delivery of medical essentials, especially remote areas,” said Jayesh Ranjan, IT Principal Secretary, Govt. of Telangana
“The demonstration proves the technological feasibility of the concept and opens up avenues for innovation in public health and emergency health services. Telangana government will offer necessary support to techno-innovators who innovate for social good,” said KT Rama Rao, IT and Industries Minister, Govt. of Telangana.
Healthcare organizations already are deploying mobile technology to solve some of the problems in the industry today. Mobile devices, wearable tech, remote monitoring, telemedicine and information-sharing platforms all are transforming healthcare. Likely in the foreseeable future, drones, robots and artificial intelligence will assume many tasks in healthcare that are performed by humans, to reduce variability, cost and error.
Drones present a tremendous opportunity to address supply chain shortcomings in the healthcare sector, reducing stockouts and wastage. Deaths due to diseases such as dengue, conditions like postpartum haemorrhage, loss of blood due to accidents and even races against time in cases of organ grafting can be addressed through faster responses, higher-quality products and better availability. Health system shortcomings, especially those felt in rural communities suffering from a lack of infrastructure and forecasted growth that outpaces investment, can be addressed and lives saved by adopting advanced logistics systems in the sky.