Industry News
Drones to Deliver Blood Supplies in Rwanda
Drones and healthcare may sound like an unusual partnership , but in an effort to improve the access to vital medications , vaccines and blood supplies a new project in Rwanda will ‘ taketo-the-skies ’ in a bid to use drones to deliver essential medical supplies , to remote regions of the country .
In a joint partnership , between Rwanda ’ s Ministry of Health , Gavi ( the Vaccine Alliance ) and Zipline , an autonomous robotics company based in San Francisco , a new national drone delivery network is due to launch this summer , delivering blood supplies to remote and hard-to-access regions across Rwanda .
The project will also test the suitability of drones for the delivery of a wider range of medical products and vaccines .
The project which has been backed by global delivery and logistics giant UPS through its ' global citizenship ' arm , the UPS Foundation , will initially involve Zipline establishing a small launching hub for a fleet of 15 autonomous drones .
When a patient needs a blood transfusion , antibiotics , or vaccines a doctor , nurse , or health centre technician will send Zipline a text message and a drone will airdrop the needed supplies within 30 minutes . The drone will send a message to the health centre when it is two minutes away and the package , equipped with a parachute , will fall slowly to the ground . The aircraft would then return to the launch hub .
" Our mission is to deliver critical medical products to hospitals and health centres that are basically unreachable with standard modes of transportation ," Zipline co-founder and CEO Keller Rinaudo said when announcing the project . " Patients frequently die because of lack of access to a basic medical product that exists in a central warehouse 75 kilometres away but can ' t make it out that final mile to the person who needs it ."
Dr Seth Berkley , CEO of Gavi , said : “ It is a totally different way of delivering vaccines to remote communities and we are extremely interested to learn if UAVs [ unmanned aerial vehicles ] can provide a safe , effective way to make vaccines available for some of the hardest-to-reach children .”
The drones that will be used in the project can reach a speed of 140 km / hour and fly in inclement weather and heavy winds . Using military-grade GPS the unmanned-aircraft are able to fly autonomously , based on a pre-determined route before airdropping their payload at the required location . They are capable of carrying up to 3 1 / 2 pounds , allowing them to transport two standard packets of blood .
Zipline is launching its service in Africa , Rinaudo says , because the area ' s medical supply delivery system is broken . The relative lack of infrastructure on the continent makes emergency medical deliveries especially difficult . The last mile of delivery is usually done by motorbike , which can be expensive and unreliable .
Staffed by former aerospace employees from NASA , SpaceX , and Boeing , Zipline has partnered with both the National Centre of Blood Transfusion , in Rwanda , as well as signing a deal with Rwanda ' s Ministry of Health to provide medical delivery services . These partnerships will see Zipline delivering all blood products for twenty hospitals and health centres starting this summer , improving access to healthcare for millions of Rwandans .
Eduardo Martinez , president of The UPS Foundation and chief diversity and inclusion officer at UPS , said : “ Public-private partnerships are the key to solving many of the world ' s challenges , with each partner contributing its unique expertise . UPS is always exploring innovative ways to enhance humanitarian logistics to help save lives , and we ' re proud to partner with Gavi and Zipline as we explore ways to extend the Rwandan government ' s innovations at a global scale .”
Zipline hopes that the Rwanda project will pave the way for wider deployment of the company ’ s drones to other countries around the world . •
The Journal of mHealth
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