First Ever Organ Transport Delivery By Drone Conducted

We’ve always known that drones could be used for delivery purposes, where in some countries such a in Australia, we’ve seen how drones are being used to deliver coffee. In fact, it had also been suggested that drones could also potentially be used to deliver organs in instances where emergency transplants had to be done.

Now over at the University of Maryland Medical Center, it looks like drones have been used for such purposes where the first-ever organ delivered by drone was successfully transplanted into a patient who had kidney failure. The use of drones was initiated by Dr. Joseph Scalea who was frustrated at the current method of organ delivery, where they were costly and slow, leading to the organs deteriorating while in transit.

According to Scalea, “This new technology has the potential to help widen the donor organ pool and access to transplantation. Delivering an organ from a donor to a patient is a sacred duty with many moving parts. It is critical that we find ways of doing this better.” That being said, there is still quite a way to go before such transportation methods become mainstream.

This includes getting clearance from the FAA, in which officials have already expressed some interest, and also overcoming hurdles like getting waivers for use of drones at night. Scalea believes that by using drones, it could cut travel time by as much as 70%.

 

Tyler Lee
Categories: Medical, Robots
Tags: Drones, Health