A hospital system in North Carolina launched on March 26 the first Federal Aviation Administration-sanctioned program allowing drones to make routine commercial package deliveries. Blood samples will be flown one-third of a mile from one WakeMed Health and Hospitals facility to another building on its Raleigh campus at least 30 times per week, the Associated Press reported.
The goal is to trim the transport time compared to the standard practice of ground delivery.
“This is going to bring tremendous benefit to healthcare,” Andreas Raptopoulos, CEO of Matternet, the drone company that partnered with the hospital on the project, told the AP. “Healthcare is one of these domains of commercial activity where being fast really matters.”
Raptopoulos said the program could soon expand to flying miles-long routes to other Raleigh-area WakeMed facilities. He added that one or two more hospitals in other cities could begin making medical specimen flights this year.
Reno, Nevada, is also testing a program in which drones deliver defibrillators during medical emergencies, according to the AP.
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Daniel joined TriMed’s Chicago editorial team in 2017 as a Cardiovascular Business writer. He previously worked as a writer for daily newspapers in North Dakota and Indiana.