India expects high over medicine delivery by drones

Experts and medical associations appeal to the central government to implement a medicine delivery system via drones across the country, writes ETV Bharat senior correspondent Gautam Debroy.

New Delhi:As the trials for drone delivery of medicines and vaccines under the Telangana government’s 'Medicine from the Sky' project is currently underway, doctors and experts from across the country expect high over the unique development and observe that medical drones can be used to deliver medical supplies such as automated external defibrillators (AED), red blood cells, medicine, or vaccines, to save emergency patients in remote areas, busy cities, and difficult terrains.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Dr Tamorish Kole, president of the Asian Society of Emergency Medicine said that in 2015, Apollo Health City in Hyderabad did the first successful simulation of emergency use, using a toy drone. Since then, there have been multiple efforts in this direction.

Read: Drones to deliver vaccines, drugs in Telangana

Telangana’s Medicine from the Sky project trial to deliver Covid-19 vaccines and drugs by drones will continue in Vikarabad till September 25.

Skye Air which is a part of the Dunzo Med Air consortium for the "Medicines from the Sky" project will work in collaboration with Dunzo Digital. The drones are supposed to deliver up to 12 km within an expected time frame of 18 minutes in temperature-controlled boxes.

“Study done by Amukele in 2017 has proven that drones carrying red blood cell units, apheresis platelet units, and unthawed plasma units frozen within 24 hours of collection placed in a cooler attached to the drone and flown for up to 26.5 minutes; has shown no adverse impact of drone transport and no evidence of red blood cell haemolysis. This can be lifesaving in many situations,” said Dr Kole.

Apart from the delivery of Covid 19 vaccines by drones, we can also avoid all unnecessary direct human contact, especially for the delivery of essential goods, such as Covid-19 viral tests, he said.

In 2017, Johns Hopkins researchers Dr Timothy Amukele and Jeff Street set a new delivery distance record for medical drones, successfully transporting human blood samples across 161 miles of the Arizona desert.

Read: Pfizer, BioNTech say trials find COVID vax safe for children of 5-11 yrs

On September 11, Telangana launched its first 'Medicine from the Sky' project, as part of which drones carried medicines and vaccines to far-flung areas in the state. Following the success of medicine delivery by drones, the Civil Aviation Ministry has granted conditional permission to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to use drones in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Manipur and Nagaland to deliver Covid-19 vaccines beyond the visual line of sight.

The ICMR has been permitted to use drones up to a height of 3,000 metres to deliver vaccines.

Welcoming the development, Dr Vinay Aggarwal former national president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) appealed to the central government to implement the medicine delivery system via drones across the country. “This is the advancement of technology. Not only Covid19 vaccines but also medicines can be transported to the last mile areas within a limited time frame,” said Dr Aggarwal.