The viability of utilising drones to transport human organs for transplant to adjacent areas has been established by a team of researchers from Techna, University Health Network, Unither Bioelectronics Inc., and Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. The researchers describe the elements that went into the historic occurrence and what it could imply for patients in the future throughout the globe in a Focus article that was published in the journal Science Robotics.
They then altered the drone to meet their unique requirements. The drone is piloted by a person, so first they fitted new electronics made particularly for good communication. A parachute, lights, several cameras, GPS trackers, and a retrieval system were then installed.
Finally, the landing gear was taken off and replaced with a container box made especially for transporting organs while remaining cold. They started conducting test flights as soon as they were certain that the drone was correctly constructed. To test every function, they had the drone transport things from one location to another. After 400 of these test flights, they decided their drone was suitable for use.
The drone carrying a donated lung lifted off on the proof-of-concept flight from Toronto Western Hospital. The lung was then successfully delivered and placed into the patient who was waiting before being taken to Toronto General Hospital, which is located only two kilometres away. The researchers contend that their method may significantly cut delivery times for short-distance transfers in heavily populated locations, such as inside a city.
They observe that owing to traffic and unplanned hold-ups, even brief transfers involving ground transportation can take a long time. They point out that the drone can easily fly over anything. Additionally, they say that because hospitals in remote locations don’t always have helicopter pads, their method may be utilised to transport organs there.
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