The Drones are Coming

Access to healthcare saw great progress this past week, with the first residential deliveries of prescriptions via autonomous drone.

It sounds like the future, but it’s happening now: prescriptions delivered via drone.

On November 1st, CVS Pharmacy and UPS’s Flight Forward subsidiary successfully used drones to deliver prescriptions to the homes of customers for the very first time.

The drone, which was developed by Matternet, departed on its inaugural flight from a CVS store in Cary, North Carolina and flew to two customers’ homes, where it then hovered about 20 feet over the ground and slowly lowered the packages to the ground via a cable and winch. One of the packages was delivered to a CVS customer with limited mobility, which makes it difficult for them to travel to a store to pick up a prescription—exactly the sort to customer CVS and UPS had in mind while getting into the drone delivery business.

“This drone delivery, the first of its kind in the industry, demonstrates what’s possible for our customers who can’t easily make it into our stores,” said Kevin Hourican, president of CVS Pharmacy, in a press release. “CVS is exploring many types of delivery options for urban, suburban and rural markets. We see big potential in drone delivery in rural communities where life-saving medications are needed and consumers at times cannot conveniently access one of our stores.”

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Medical Drones Will Thrive in Healthcare: A Safe Road to Health

In future medical emergencies, where urgent response will be necessary, drones will mean the fastest answer.

from Medical Futurist

Drones have great potential in making the transport of drugs, vaccines or medical aids faster. They are able to help in circumstances when time is crucial; e.g. in situations requiring urgent responses, during disasters or medical emergencies. Google, the tech giant with a significant medical portfolio, patented a device that can call for a drone in emergency situations to fly in with life-saving medical equipment on board. You would push a button, and a drone would appear on the spot. How amazing would that sound? And what about drones deliver automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) directly to people who have just suffered a heart attack? Researchers from the University of Toronto are already experimenting with the idea based on their inspiration from ambulance drones in the Netherlands.

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