Drones Found To Be Capable Of Carrying Blood Bags

Sometimes during an emergency and doctors require a certain blood type to transfuse into patients and they don’t have any in the hospital, they need to turn to the outside, like blood banks where specific blood types are available. However the issue isn’t so much the availability, but also the transportation in which it can take time.

There are of course helicopters that can fetch it, but it seems that drones are now a possible alternative as a study has found that drones can be used safely to transport blood bags. In a report published in the journal Transfusion, investigators have found that not only are drones safe to be used, but they are also effective and are more timely as well.

According to Timothy Amukele, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, “For rural areas that lack access to nearby clinics, or that may lack the infrastructure for collecting blood products or transporting them on their own, drones can provide that access.”

Amukele also adds, “My vision is that in the future, when a first responder arrives to the scene of an accident, he or she can test the victim’s blood type right on the spot and send for a drone to bring the correct blood product.”

Tyler Lee
Categories: Medical, Robots
Tags: Drones