Medical drones

The drones or quadricopters, also called Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS’s), are literally flying around your ears at the moment. Even so much that regulation has become necessary because of very dangerous situations and Paparrazzi. However, do drones now have potential for medical applications? Yeah, and they’re growing steadily!

Where there’s no way

Where there’s no way out, there’s gonna be a drone. The first serious medical applications of drones were therefore to deliver medical supplies to remote and inaccessible places. Think of the Wadden Islands when the ferry is not sailing, or in the bush bush of Africa for medicines, blood and vaccines. In America (including Virginia) and Australia the delivery of medical goods by drone is becoming commonplace. Rwanda was the first country to have a medical droneport.

Blood and pills

Mayo Clinics already mentions the regular transport of four to five kg over distances of thirty to sixty minutes flying time, not only for the remote locations mentioned, but also in case of haste when there are traffic jams. Frozen blood plasma and platelets are already in transport and possibly something for donor organs. In the meantime, the pharmacy has discovered emergency supplies of medication for cramped patients. From an entirely different genre was the delivery of abortion pills via a drone from Germany to Polish women. I wasn’t allowed to, but the police had checked.

Ambulancedrone

The reanimation or ambulance drone from Delft attracted a lot of attention in the press. Students of the TU developed a drone especially for the transport of an AED. This ambudrone can reach 100 km per hour and is often faster on site than a moving ambulance at shorter distances. An extension can be remote monitoring with the AED application’s built-in drone camera and microphone, with additional user instruction if required.

The ambudrone is not yet suitable for passenger transport. However, work is already underway and an appropriate version can be expected within a period of between two and five years.

Surveillance and sitraps

Business, agriculture and forestry, brokers, fire brigades and police use drones for inspection and surveillance. The drones transmit images (video and photo plus sound) of the areas and buildings they fly over. This gives an ambulance control room or emergency room of a trauma centre a quick overview and situation report (sitrap) of the accident site or calamity. The drone can get there even sooner and a lot safer than the first ambulance.

Other applications in these are recordings for training purposes and being able to monitor the events: what did our staff do, by whom were they hindered/threatened, etc.?

Buddydrone

Of a different order is to supervise and keep an eye on clients. Following in the footsteps of guidance robots such as Zora and Pet, the buddydrone follows the patients with disabilities, lvg and minor mental disorders or autistic children from the air. If something threatens to go wrong, the drone alerts the ambulance workers present for that purpose. This type of drone can also give instructions via speakers to the persons to be accompanied. This sounds like ‘Big Brother’, but gives more independence and a better quality of life.

Security

In unsafe situations the drone can explore (GPS and recordings) and even start the first medical assistance. The latter by providing relief supplies and remote instruction to the victims. The first drones were sensitive to wind, precipitation, heat and other physically unfriendly conditions. However, following the example of military drones, the current emergency response model has become a lot more robust. If emergency services workers become trapped or threatened, the drone can send reinforcements via the control room. Protection of medical personnel by armed drones is controversial. Unfortunately, this is necessary in certain areas of conflict.

Snuffeldrone

In case of dangerous gases, substances, smoke, etc., the sniffing drone comes into view. It measures the number of particles in the air and passes this on to the emergency services on the ground. This can also be done indoors.

Medical examination

Since flying around with heavier drones is not harmless – several accidents have already occurred, sometimes with fatal consequences – the aviation authorities are constantly tightening the requirements for (professional) pilots. Recently, a medical examination for drone pilots was recommended.

Self-employed drones

A limitation of the earlier drone generations was that you had to control them manually, remotely. Out of sight means relying on the transmitted video footage of what the UAS is doing. Being out of range or having a malfunction of the control signal can have serious consequences. New and coming generations of drones are considerably more independent. They know the pre-programmed routes and check them on the basis of GPS. The drone intelligently recognises obstacles and anomalies and then evades them.

More and more robotics goes into the drones and they can also be linked to follow moving objects, such as the drone that flies behind the doctor or ambulance. Advanced battery technology enables longer flight times.

Also indoors

Most drone applications are for outdoor use in the field. With the advent of better navigation, sensor and intelligent control techniques, the drone is increasingly flying indoors. A robot drone that flies on hall and in medical buildings will definitely be there; the flying assistant of doctor, paramedic or nurse and internal transport. Keeping an eye on clients is privacy-sensitive, but is to be expected in the robot hospital.

By: Ulco Schuurmans | Arts Society & Health