Fully automated medical delivery by drone
Medical drone transports have been around for a while, but the Jan Yperman Hospital in Ypres has achieved a world first: from the drone's take-off to the sample's delivery to the lab, with no human involvement.
Recently, the Diksmuide kidney dialysis centre sent a blood sample to the Jan Yperman Hospital in Ypres. A routine task and nothing out of the ordinary—except that the transportation was done by air via drone, not by road in a taxi. And that’s just part of the story.
How was it done? On the roof of the centre, a nurse loaded a tube containing the blood sample into the drone, which weighs 21 kg and is over 2.5 metres long. The drone took off immediately and, after flying at an average speed of 100 km/h, landed on the roof of the hospital in Ypres less than 15 minutes later, which functions as a cargo area or small airport. Once the box was closed, the drone unloaded its cargo fully automatically into a pneumatic tube system, which delivered it directly to the clinical biologists in the lab. Far more efficient and quicker than the 25 km taxi journey, which takes around 45 minutes during rush hour.
So, the test was more than successful. In addition to the medical sector, other industries are expressing interest in the system, which still needs further development before it can become fully operational.