Digital Health Space: Drones for Health Care

Gadfin, or “wings” in Aramaic—

Its flagship aircraft hovers like a UAV and folds out wings to fly like a plane—is hoping to connect Israeli hospitals with drone supply networks and has its sights set on providing essential services in remote Third World locations.

Israel’s Gadfin UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and drone producer was the first company in the world to receive the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority permit for urban airspace deliveries this year. That permit means that Gadfin can compete for tenders that provide a glimpse into the near future. Under this vision, hospitals, laboratories, and a range of organizations will send and receive supplies via drone transport networks, skipping over-congested roads and reducing risk to sensitive, refrigerated packages.

Gadfin holds several breakthrough patents, including for a first of its kind drone called “Spirit One” that folds out its wings in-flight. It can take packages weighing up to 15 kilograms across more than 250 kilometers. The aircraft are operated autonomously with almost no human intervention.

The company is also designing a larger version of “Spirit One,” called “Spirit X,” which can take 100-kilogram packages across 500 kilometers.

Spirit One

The use of drones requires electrification of it's engine(s) and the use of GPS, possibly 5G and integration of air traffic control systems for optimization and safety concerns. Modern air control systems will have to adapt to new flight modes.

Gadfin CEO Eyal Regev states,

“When we look at the world, we see that most areas are in the periphery. Most peripheral areas are very much lacking the services that city centers enjoy. It’s true for Southeast Asia, it’s true for Africa, it’s true for South America, but also for the West. This applies to many services. Medical tests, for example, have short lifespans and need to reach destinations quickly,” he explained.

“We hope that within two years, we can connect Israeli hospitals. This could speed up deliveries of sensitive medical supplies like bone marrow transplants. These are highly complex and expensive deliveries on land,” said Regev. “Instead of having doctors or nurses accompany the delivery to make sure the taxi doesn’t stop in the sun, our aircraft whisks them to the lab or hospital in minutes.”

Numerous health applications have become available. The Coronavirus pandemic has stimulated 'no contact' means of delivery of supplies.

UCSD hospital gets a drone delivery program powered by Matternet and UPS

UC San Diego Health. The California health system this month is launching a drug transport program in a collaboration with United Parcel Service to speed delivery of medical samples, supplies, and documents between its hospitals.

Several hospitals and health systems have created partnerships to use the flying robots to deliver medical supplies, samples and even organs between their facilities. Here are six that have launched programs or plan to:

Rady Children's Hospital (San Diego). The Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine has partnered with Deloitte to create a program that uses drones to deliver genomic testing specimens from the hospital to the lab.

WakeMed Health & Hospitals (Raleigh, N.C.) WakeMed partnered with Matternet, a California-based drone technology company, to carry blood and urine samples between its labs and clinics.

University of Utah Health (Salt Lake City). The hospital partnered with UPS to transfer medical samples and devices between facilities in its health system.

Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, Calif.) The health system said it will work with UPS to test how well drones can move medical supplies between its 39 hospitals.

University of Maryland Medical Center (Baltimore). The hospital was the first to use a drone to transport a donor kidney for transplantation surgery.

Zipline’s drones are delivering medical supplies and PPE in North Carolina

The drones will fly on 20- to 30-mile round trips

TRANSPORTING ALMOST FOUR

POUNDS OF CARGO AT UP TO 80 MPH

Although this is the US first for Zipline, this is not the first time the company’s drones have been used to deliver medical supplies globally. In 2016, the drone logistics company started delivering blood in Rwanda in what was, at the time, the first national drone delivery system. In 2019, it expanded operations to Ghana. In total, the company says its drones have flown over 1.8 million autonomous miles, and now, it’s using its drones to help respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in both countries.

The service has begun by delivering supplies to Novant Health’s Huntersville medical center from a depot next to its facility in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Once the drones reach their destination, they drop the supplies via parachute, meaning the center doesn’t need any additional infrastructure to receive deliveries. Zipline says its drones can carry almost four pounds of cargo and travel at speeds of up to 80 mph.

For now, Zipline has been given Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for flights over two routes, with round trips of between 20 and 30 miles. However, the company’s drones have a total range of over 100 miles, meaning they’re capable of reaching 30 more Novant Health facilities, pending FAA approval. In the next two years, Novant and Zipline hope to get the FAA’s go-ahead to serve health facilities and even patients’ homes as part of a full commercial service.