Do drones have a place in healthcare?

There is no denying that technology is changing the way healthcare providers are going about their businesses. And the change is bound to continue going into the future, as many healthcare practitioners view technological innovations is a competitive necessity.

Drone is one of the latest technologies that are finding its way into healthcare. Earlier this year, the World Health Organization along with the Bhutanese government collaborated with Matternet, a California-based unmanned aerial vehicle developer, to provide drones for Bhutan.

The situation in Bhutan spells out how useful drones could be in healthcare delivery. First, as documented by the World Bank Data, the country has approximately one physician to 3,333 people. More worrying is the fact that it is difficult to access remote mountain communities affordably and in good time – in case of emergency.

Up until now, though, drones have been used primarily in the entertainment, real estate, agriculture and public safety spaces, says Mike Fortin, CEO at CineDrones, an Orlando-based company that specializes in building ready to fly drones.

However, in the healthcare sector, the most prominent use of drones would be in the delivery of medical supplies. “In situations where people are injured in places that are inaccessible, drones can be useful for immediate delivery of drugs,” says Fortin. “With average payload of up to five pounds, medicines, bandages or even defibrillator can be transported to such areas for first aid.”

In the US, the hurricanes present an instance when drone could be useful to deliver first aid.

Apart from emergencies, in such remote areas where people need medication frequently but can’t access a physician easily, drones can be programmed to deliver medications to such locations at designated periods – weekly or monthly.

Moreover, in megacities where traffic congestions are common, drones could also be used to deliver home-based healthcare. The facts that it is fully autonomous, and operators can set specific delivery points make this technology viable in healthcare delivery.

 One other aspect that the WHO’s partnership with Matternet aims at is addressing the shortage of physicians in the country. Part of the idea is to relief physicians of certain petty duties, so they can focus on the more important ones. If drones can help with this, then they certainly have a place in healthcare.

First, according to WHO, 45.8 percent of WHO Member States report to have less than one physician per 1000 people. This shows just how useful drones could to better healthcare delivery. And it is definitely going to be useful in the first world as well. For instance, PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the entry of $25 million newly insured patients in the US could lead to shortage of physicians, thereby, paving the way for technologies, like drones, to join the workforce within the sector.

Other side applications could include administration of medication to patients with life-threatening communicable diseases, like Ebola.

Promising as this technology could be, though, there will be roadblocks, most notably people thinking that a technology like drone infringes on their privacy. However, Fortin says that drones are not made to be spying devices.

So to answer the question in the headline, “Drones certainly have a place in healthcare,” says Fortin.