A role for drones in healthcare

by Jeremy Tucker Drone use for commercial purposes has gotten much press of late due to Amazon announcing it intends to use drones to deliver packages to customers. This is a very intriguing and transformational idea with many intended and unintended consequences. The future use of drones in healthcare also is very thought provoking. How can the industry best use this technology to improve safety and care delivery? Well for starters, drones already have been trialed to deliver food aid and medical supplies to areas hit by disaster, such as Haiti, by a startup called Matternet. The rapid delivery of vaccines, medications and supplies right to the source could quash outbreaks of life-threatening communicable diseases. Communication equipment, mobile technology, portable shelter comprise the vast list of what could be delivered in a rapid fashion to areas where critical infrastructure damage would prevent ground or typical air transport. In the future, small indoor drones could deliver medicine to the bedside of a patient from the pharmacy, thus eliminating some human steps. This would lead to more rapid and less error prone administration of medications. Nurses and pharmacists can work more efficiently as supplies can be summoned to the bedside instead of the time consuming task of gathering necessary items. Drones could deliver medications and supplies to patients being cared for in the home instead of a hospital-based setting. The future will see more outpatient c...
Source: hospital impact - Category: Health Managers Authors: Source Type: blogs