Raleigh, North Carolina: A pioneering use of drones to fly blood samples across a North Carolina hospital campus launched Tuesday in the latest move to expand their roles in business and health care.
The short trips between WakeMed buildings in Raleigh mark the first time the Federal Aviation Administration has allowed regular commercial flights of drones carrying products, according to UPS and drone company Matternet, which partnered with the hospital on the program.
"This technology can potentially shorten that down to minutes and the benefits to our patients are clear we can get them a result faster. And that helps our people take care of our patients much more efficiently," said Dr. Stuart Ginn, Medical Director, WakeMed Innovations.
The WakeMed program will start by flying patients' medical samples one-third of a mile (.5 kilometer) from a medical park to the main hospital building for lab testing at least six times a day five days a week, Matternet CEO Andreas Raptopoulos said in an interview.
Vials of blood or other specimens will be loaded into a secure box and carried to a drone launching pad, where they will be secured on the aircraft and flown to another building.
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He said the flights will technically be within sight of operators on either end of the route, and they are authorized to fly above people.
The aim is to cut down on the time it takes to transport the time-sensitive samples typically driven on the ground.
