Drones arrive for the rapid transport of drugs, biological samples, vaccines, blood and in the future also of organs. In fact, projects for the use of drones in the healthcare sector are multiplying in Italy, which will allow for drastically reducing connection times between hospitals and, in some cases, to contribute to save patients in imminent danger of their life. In practice, using new radio-controlled flying vehicles, equipped with a special capsule with controlled environment and temperature, it will be possible quickly and safely transfer packages weighing a few kilograms at a distance of tens of kilometers, without having to resort to ambulance rides in congested city traffic.
The latest projects of these new ‘medical drones’ will be presented in the next episode of ‘Roma Drone Webinar Channel’ (Rdwc), the live streaming channel on legislation, technology and business of Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas), which will take place – the day after tomorrow Thursday 9 December (from 4 pm) on the Facebook page @romadrone – on the theme ‘Drones in hospital. Projects and experiments for the use of Uas in the transport of drugs, blood and biomedical products’. There are numerous Italian projects for the use of drones in hospitals that will be presented in the episode of Rdwc.
An interesting experimentation was carried out by Leonardo, Telespazio and D-Flight, who organized two flights of a fixed-wing drone with vertical take-off and landing tbetween the 32 km distant locations of Santa Marinella and Palidoro of the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital in Rome. Another project, called ‘Philotea’ and developed by a group of companies led by the Neapolitan Carpitech, concerns the use of a multirotor drone with the ‘Smox’ capsule, an innovative self-contained sanitary container, with Internet of Things and intelligence applications. artificial, for the transport of drugs, biological materials, blood and organs.
A similar system was developed by ABzero, a Tuscan start-up incubated by the Technological Pole of Navacchio (Pisa) and a spin-off of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa, which sees the use of a multirotor drone equipped with a patented ‘smart capsule’ for the transport of blood, blood products, medicines and even covid swabs between healthcare facilities. A new drone was instead made by the Roman company Eurolink Systems: it is the ‘Beluga’ quadcopter equipped with a cargo-bay for transporting bags of blood, plasma and drugs in difficult areas to be reached quickly or in emergency situations.
Other projects are being studied: the Aerospace Technological District of Brindisi, as part of the European ‘Corus-Xuam’ project, it will experiment with the urgent transport of vaccines by drones between the airport of Grottaglie and the hospital of Manduria (Taranto), while the Dot-Organi and Transplantation Foundation and the Turin Polytechnic are working on the ‘Indoor’ project for the transport of biological material and organs by drones.
The Rdwc channel is promoted by Roma Drone Conference, the professional event dedicated to the Italian drone community, and organized by the Ifimedia association and Mediarkè, in collaboration with the National Agency for Civil Aviation (Enac), the European University of Rome and the Aopa Italia-Apr Division. Sponsors of Rdwc are D-Flight ( main sponsor), Aerovision, Cabi Broker and DroneFly.Shop. The journalistic editorial staff and the press office are handled by Mediarkè, while the production and technical support by Meway. Official media partners are Quadricottero News, Drone Channel Tv, FlyEurope.tv and Eventpage.it. Participation is free.