TRENDS
How are drones revolutionizing package delivery? Find out in
the “Knock Knock: Special Delivery” episode of Trailblazers
with Walter Isaacson. DellTechnologies.com/Trailblazers
PHOTO (TOP) COURTESY OF ZIPLINE, PHOTOS (BOTTOM) COURTESY OF FLIRTEY
backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
Zipline is expanding to places like Tanzania,
where drones will deliver blood transfusion
supplies, emergency vaccines, HIV medications,
antimalarials, antibiotics, lab reagents,
and basic surgical supplies.
In the U.S., Nevada-based automated logistics
startup Flirtey developed a defibrillator
drone delivery service, bringing people in rural
Nevada immediate access to critical medical
supplies. The company plans to dispatch a
drone to deliver an Automated External Defibrillator
(AED)—a portable electronic device
that delivers a shock to restore normal heart
rhythm—whenever a 911 caller in the area reports
symptoms of cardiac arrest. This allows
bystanders to begin administering care while
they wait for paramedics to arrive.
Its effects will undoubtedly be felt. According
to researchers from Sweden-based Center
for Resuscitation Science, drones carrying
defibrillators have the ability to cut precious
minutes off of response time and increase the
patient’s chance of survival. In a trauma simulation,
the center found that drones shaved
an average of 16 minutes off of defibrillator
delivery time compared to ambulances. And
every minute counts. Based on data from the
American Heart Association, for every minute
a victim of cardiac arrest waits to receive
defibrillation, their odds of survival decrease
by seven to 10 percent.
“With this application of our technology,
we project that drone delivery can save over a
million lives in the decades to come, just with
defibrillators. There are many more applications,”
Flirtey CEO Matthew Sweeny says.
COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS
As strict U.S. regulations—such as keeping
drones within operators’ visual line of sight—
begin to ease, commercial applications may
soon take flight around the country.
Zipline is working with state governments
across the country to launch its medical drone
delivery as a part of the Federal Aviation
Administration’s recently announced UAS Integration
Pilot Program (UASIPP). If Zipline’s
projects are chosen through the UASIPP,
they’re expected to commence operation by
the close of 2018.
Flirtey is also working with the UASIPP to
fast-track its defibrillator service. If chosen,
the company expects its service to save more
than 100,000 lives per year. While it awaits
formal approval, Flirtey is focusing its efforts
on FAA-approved drone deliveries of overthe-counter
medicines to customer homes in
Reno, Nevada.
“This is revolutionary technology,” Sweeny
says. “We’re taking a technology—drones—
which had only previously been available to
the military, and democratizing it, commercializing
it, to save lives and change lifestyles.” ■
19