Top

Published in:

2024 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

5. Applications of Drones in the Health Industry

Authors : Kursat Alp Yigit, Alper Dalkiran, T. Hikmet Karakoc

Published in: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Design and Technology

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

Drones can gather real-time data cost-effectively to deliver payloads and have initiated the rapid evolution of many industrial, commercial, and recreational applications. The advancement of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology in industrial processes and communication and networking technologies has increased their use in civil, business, and social applications. The applications of drones in the healthcare field is a new but rapidly developing technology. With their valuable functions, drones successfully deliver drugs, blood, vaccines, and similar medical samples that are urgently needed to places where access is difficult. Drones can evolve medical care as well as propel advancement in the health industry. The use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) before emergency medical services (EMS) arrival can increase 30-day survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) significantly. Drones or UAVs can fly with high velocity and potentially transport devices such as AEDs to the site of OHCAs. Depending on the developments in drone technology, it will be possible to transport the patients who met with an accident to the emergency services of hospitals with done after the first intervention. This article provides a comprehensive review of current and future drone applications in health to empower and inspire more aggressive investigation.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

previous chapter Onboard Trajectory Coordination of Multiple Unmanned Air Vehicles

next chapter An Evaluation of the Current Status and Trends in All Electric Urban Air Mobility UAVs

Agatz N, Bouman P, Schmidt M (2015) Optimization approaches for the traveling salesman problem with drone. ERIM report series research in management, Erasmus Research Institute of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2639672

Ahirwar S, Swarnkar R, Bhukya S et al (2019) Application of drone in agriculture. Int J Curr Microbiol App Sci 8(01):2500–2505. https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2019.801.264CrossRef

Amukele T (2019) Current state of drones in healthcare: challenges and opportunities. J Appl Lab Med 4(2):296–298. https://doi.org/10.1373/jalm.2019.030106CrossRef

Amukele TK, Sokoll LJ, Pepper D et al (2015) Can unmanned aerial systems (drones) be used for the routine transport of chemistry, hematology, and coagulation laboratory specimens? PLoS One 10:0134020. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134020CrossRef

Amukele T, Ness PM, Tobian A et al (2017) Drone transportation of blood products. Transfusion 57:582e8. https://doi.org/10.1111/trf.13900CrossRef

Anticona Huaynate CF, Pajuelo Travezaño MJ, Correa M et al (2015) Diagnostics barriers and innovations in rural areas: insights from junior medical doctors on the frontlines of rural care in Peru. BMC Health Serv Res 15:454. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-015-1114-7CrossRef

Aron J (2016) NHS to use drones to help chemical, bio and nuke response teams. New Scientist. Available via DIALOG. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2075625-nhs-to-use drones-to-help-chemical-bio-and-nuke-response-teams/. Assessed 12 Nov 2017

Bennett B (2011) Los Angeles Times. Police employ predator drone spy planes on home front. Available via DIALOG. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/10/nation/la-nadrone-arrest-20111211. Accessed 22 July 2017

Brady JM, Stokes MD, Bonnardel J et al (2016) Characterization of a quad-rotor unmanned aircraft system for aerosol–particle-concentration measurements. Environ Sci Technol 50:1376–1383. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b05320CrossRef

Braun J, Gertz SD, Furer A et al (2019) The promising future of drones in prehospital medical care and its application to battlefield medicine. J Trauma Acute Care Surg 87(1S):S28–S34CrossRef

Breen GM, Matusitz J (2010) An evolutionary examination of telemedicine: a health and computer-mediated communication perspective. Soc Work Public Health 25:5. https://doi.org/10.1080/19371910902911206CrossRef

Capolupo A, Pindozzi S, Okello C et al (2015) Photogrammetry for environmental monitoring: the use of drones and hydrological models for detection of soil contaminated by copper. Sci Total Environ 514:298–330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.01.109CrossRef

Choi-Fitzpatrick A, Chavarria D, Cychosz E et al (2016) Up in the air: a global estimate of non-violent drone use 2009–2015. In: Joan B (ed) Kroc School of Peace Studies at Digital. University of San Diego. https://doi.org/10.22371/08.2016.001CrossRef

Claesson A, Fredman D, Svensson L et al (2016) Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) in out-of-hospital-cardiac-arrest. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med 24(1):1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-016-0313-5CrossRef

Cousins S (2016) Condoms by drone: a new way to get birth control to remote areas. National Public Radio, Washington, DC. Available via DIALOG. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/05/19/478411186/condoms-by-drone-a new-way-to-get-birth-control-to-remote-areas/. Accessed 12 Nov 2017

Deutsche Post DHL Group (2018) Rapid response from the air: medicines successfully delivered using a parcel drone in East Africa. https://www.dpdhl.com/en/media-relations/press-releases/2018/rapid-responsefrom-the-air-medicines-successfully-delivered-using-a-parcel-drone-in-east africa.html. Accessed 17 Dec 2018

DHL (2016) Successful trial integration of DHL parcelcopter into logistics chain

Dorling K, Heinrichs J, Messier GG et al (2016) Vehicle routing problems for drone delivery. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern 70–85. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSMC.2016.2582745

Euchi J (2020) Transportation, logistics, and supply chain management in home healthcare: emerging research and opportunities. IGI Global, Hershey. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-0268-6CrossRef

FAA (2013) Integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the national airspace system (NAS) roadmap. Washington, DC, USA. Available via DIALOG. https://www.faa.gov/uas/resources/policy_library/media/2019_UAS_Civil_Integration_Roadmap_third_edition.pdf. Accessed 16 Feb 2022

Floreano D (2015) Science, technology and the future of small autonomous drones. Nature 521:460–466. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14542CrossRef

Foina AG, Krainer C, Sengupta R (2015) An unmanned aerial traffic management solution for cities using an air parcel model. In: 2015 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), p 1295–1300, https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS.2015.7152423

Fornace KM, Drakeley CJ, William T et al (2016) Mapping infectious disease landscapes: unmanned aerial vehicles and epidemiology. Trends Parasitol 30(11):514–519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2014.09.001CrossRef

Freeman D (2019) A drone just flew a kidney to a transplant patient for the first time ever. It won’t be the last. Available via DIALOG: https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/drone-just-flew-kidney-transplant-patient-firsttime-ever-it-ncna1001396. Accessed 16 July 19

Freitas EP, Heimfarth T, Netto IF et al (2010) UAV relay network to support WSN connectivity. International congress on ultra modern telecommunications and control systems, pp 309–314. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUMT.2010.5676621

French S (2015) Drone delivery is already here-and it works. Marketwatch

Ghazbi SN, Akbari AA, Gharib MR (2014) Quad-rotor: full dynamic modeling, nonlinear simulation and control of attitudes. Indian J Sci Res 1(2):759–772

Guido N, Mohammadi S, Hassanalian M et al (2019) Surface temperature effects of solar panels of fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicles on flight performance. AIAA Aviation Forum 17–21. Dallas, TX. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2019-3689

Gupta SG, Ghonge MM, Jawandhiya PM (2013) Review of unmanned aircraft system (UAS). Technology 2(4)

Hackman M, Nicas J (2015) Drone delivers medicine to rural Virginia clinic. Wall Street Journal. Available via DIALOG. https://www.wsj.com/articles/drone-delivers-medicine-to-rural-virginia-clinic-1437155114/. Accessed 12 Nov 20

Haidari LA, Brown ST, Ferguson M et al (2016) The economic and operational value of using drones to transport vaccines. Vaccine 34:4062–4067CrossRef

Hardy A, Makame M, Cross D et al (2017) Using low-cost drones to map malaria vector habitats. Parasit Vectors 10(29):1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-017-1973-3CrossRef

Harnett BM, Doarn CR, Rosen J et al (2008) Evaluation of unmanned airborne vehicles and mobile robotic telesurgery in an extreme environment. Telemed J Environ Health 14:539–544. https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2007.0087CrossRef

Hassanalian M, Abdelkefi A (2017) Design, manufacturing, and flight testing of a fixed wing micro air vehicle with Zimmerman planform. Meccanica 1265–1282. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11012-016-0475-2

Hassanalian M, Khaki H, Khosrawi M (2014a) A new method for design of fixed wing micro air vehicle. In: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, pp 837–850. https://doi.org/10.1177/0954410014540621

Hassanalian M, Radmanesh M, Sedaghat A (2014b) Increasing flight endurance of MAVs using multiple quantum well solar cells. Int J Aeronaut Space Sci 15(2):212–217. https://doi.org/10.5139/IJASS.2014.15.2.23CrossRef

Herlitz J (2015) Swedish register for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, annual report 2015. http://www.hlr.nu/hjart-lungraddningsregistret/. Accessed 20 July 2016

Heutger M, Kückelhaus M (2014) Unmanned aerial vehicle in logistics: a DHL perspective on implications and use cases for the logistics industry. DHL Customer Solutions & Innovation, Troisdorf, Germany

Hlad J (2015) Drones: a force for good when flying in the face of disaster. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jul/28/drones-flying-in-theface-of-disaster-humanitarian-response/

Hornyak T (2014) Ambulance drones could bring defibrillators in minutes. PC World. Available via DIALOG. https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/558453/ambulance-drones-could-bring-defibrillators-minutes/. Accessed 12 Nov 2017

ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) (2011) Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), Cir. 328, An/190

Jo D, Kwon Y (2017) Analysis of VTOL UAV propellant technology. J Comput Commun 5(7):76–82. https://doi.org/10.4236/jcc.2017.57008CrossRef

Karaca Y, Cicek M, Tatli O et al (2017) The potential use of unmanned aircraft systems (drones) in mountain search and rescue operations. Am J Emerg Med S0735-6757(17):30750–30757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajem.2017.09.025CrossRef

Kelek BS (2015) Blue sky birds come to the world. J Int Trade Logist Law 1(1):41–49

Khazan O (2016) A drone to save the world. The Atlantic

Kim SH (2020) Choice model based analysis of consumer preference for drone delivery service. J Air Transp Manage 84:1017–1085. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101785CrossRef

Li J, Zhao X, Cho M et al (2016) From trolley to autonomous vehicle: perceptions of responsibility and moral norms in traffic accidents with self-driving cars. SAE technical paper 01. https://doi.org/10.4271/2016-01-0164

Lippi G, Mattiuzzi C (2016) Biological samples transportation by drones: ready for prime time? Ann Translat Med 4:92. https://doi.org/10.3978/j.issn.2305-5839.2016.02.03CrossRef

Makoye K (2019) Buzz as world’s biggest drone drug deliveries take off in Tanzania. Available via DIALOG. https://www.reuters.com/article/ustanzania-health-drones/buzz-as-worlds-biggest-drone-drug-deliveries-take off-in-tanzania-idUSKCN1B91F7. Accessed 17 July 2019

Mallek M, Euchi J, Jerbi Y (2020) A review on optimization modeling of hybrid energy systems. In: Euchi J (ed) Transportation, logistics, and supply chain management in home healthcare: emerging research and opportunities. IGI Global, Hershey. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-0268-6.ch003CrossRef

Martin PG, Payton OD, Fardoulis JS et al (2016) The use of unmanned aerial systems for the mapping of legacy uranium mines. J Environ Radioact 143:135–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2015.02.004CrossRef

Mazur M, Wisniewski A, McMillan J (2016) PwC global report on the commercial applications of drone technology. PricewaterhouseCoopers, tech. Rep

Médecins Sans Frontières (2014) Papua New Guinea: innovating to reach remote TB patients and improve access to treatment Geneva: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International. Available via DIALOG. http://www.msf.org/article/papuanew-guinea-innovating-reach-remote-tb-patients-and-improveaccess-treatment/. Accessed 9 June 2017

Mendelow B, Muir P, Boshielo T (2007) Development of e-Juba, a preliminary proof of concept UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) designed to facilitate the transportation of microbiological test samples from remote rural clinics to NHLS laboratories. South African Med J 97:1215–1218

Merkert R, Bushell J (2020) Managing the drone revolution: a systematic literature review into the current use of airborne drones and future strategic directions for their effective control. J Air Transp Manag 89:101929. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101929CrossRef

Mis M (2016) UK-funded drone deliveries aim to save mothers, babies in Tanzania. Available via DIALOG. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-aid-drones-idUSKBN14I18C/. Accessed 12 Nov 2017

Mogombo KG (2016) UNICEF test first drone for infant HIV diagnosis. Africa News Service. Malawi News Agency. Available via DIALOG. http://allafrica.com/stories/201603151652. html/. Accessed 12 Nov 2017

Momont A Ambulance drone. [Online]. Available: https://www.tudelft.nl/en/ide/research/researchlabs/applied-labs/ambulance-drone/. Accessed: 06 Aug 2019

Narayanan RGL, Ibe OC (2015) Joint network for disaster relief and search and rescue network operations. 10.1016/B978-1-78548-022-5.50006-6

Nex F, Remondino F (2013) UAV for 3D mapping applications: a review. Appl Geomat 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12518-013-0120-x

Nordberg P (2015) The survival benefit of dual dispatch of EMS and fire-fighters in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest may differ depending on population density a prospective cohort study. Resuscitation 90:143–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2015.02.036CrossRef

Panagiotou P, Yakinthos K (2020) Aerodynamic efficiency and performance enhancement of fixed-wing UAVs. Aerosp Sci Technol 99:105575. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ast.2019.105575CrossRef

Peckham R, Sinha R (2019) Anarchitectures of health: futures for the biomedical drone. Glob Public Health 14:1204e19. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2018.1546335CrossRef

Pepitone J (2015) First FAA-approved drone delivery drops medicine in Virginia. NBC News

Perkins GD (2015) European resuscitation council guidelines for resuscitation 2015: section 2. Adult basic life support and automated external defibrillation. Resuscitation 95:81–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2015.07.015CrossRef

Petricca L, Ohlckers P, Grinde C (2011) Micro-and nano-air vehicles: state of the art. Int J Aerosp Eng. https://doi.org/10.1155/2011/214549

Poljak M, Šterbenc A (2020) Use of drones in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases: current status, challenges and barriers. Clin Microbiol Infect 26(4):425–430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2019.09.014CrossRef

Preimesberger C (2016) Drones will soon be dropping medicines to save lives in Rwanda. eWeek

Prigg M (2014) The ambulance drone that could save your life. Daily Mail 2014

Priye A, Wong S, Bi Y et al (2016) Lab-on-a-drone: toward pinpoint deployment of smartphone-enabled nucleic acid-based diagnostics for mobile health care. Anal Chem 88:4651–4660. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.5b04153CrossRef

Pulver A, Wei R, Mann C (2016) Locating AED enabled medical drones to enhance cardiac arrest response times. Prehosp Emerg Care 20:378–389. https://doi.org/10.3109/10903127.2015.1115932CrossRef

Raffaello DA (2014) Guest editorial can drones deliver? IEEE Trans Autom Sci Eng 11(3):647–648. https://doi.org/10.1109/TASE.2014.2326952CrossRef

Raptopoulos A (2013) No roads? There’s a drone for that. TED Global, p 2013

Rosen JW (2017) Zipline: help from above. MIT Technol Rev 120:36–45

Sabatino F (2015) Quad-rotor control: modeling, nonlinear control design, and simulation (Master thesis). School of Electrical Engineering, Automatic Control, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Scalea JR, Restaino S, Scassero M et al (2018) An initial investigation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and real-time organ status measurement for transporting human organs. IEEE J Transl Eng Health Med 6:4000107. https://doi.org/10.1109/JTEHM.2018.2875704CrossRef

Scalea JR, Restaino S, Scassero M et al (2019) The final frontier? Exploring organ transportation by drone. Am J Transplant 19:962–964. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajt.15113CrossRef

Siddhardha K (2018) A novel bi-rotor configuration and its control. IFAC 456–461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2018.05.076

Spring T (2017) In pictures: 15 current and future uses of drones. Computerworld Available via DIALOG. http://www.computerworld.com.au/slideshow/…/pictures-15-current-future-uses-drones/

Sreenath S, Malik H, Husnu N et al (2020) Assessment and use of unmanned aerial vehicle for civil structural health monitoring. Procedia Comput Sci 170:656–663. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2020.03.174CrossRef

Stempeck A, Hassanalian M, Abdelkefi A (2018) Aerodynamic performance of albatross-inspired wing shape for marine unmanned air vehicles. In: 36th AIAA applied aerodynamics conference, Atlanta, Georgia, pp 25–29. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2018-3899

Tan DY, Chi W, Bin Mohamed Salleh MF et al (2017) Study on impact of separation distance to traffic management for small UAS operations in urban environment. In: Transdisciplinary engineering: a paradigm shift: proceedings of the 24th ISPE Inc. international conference on transdisciplinary engineering, vol 5. IOS Press, p 39. July 10–14

Tang X-B, Meng J, Wang P et al (2016) Efficiency calibration and minimum detectable activity concentration of a real-time UAV airborne sensor system with two gamma spectrometers. Appl Radiat Isot 110:100–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2016.01.008CrossRef

Thiels CA, Aho JM, Zietlow SP et al (2015) Use of unmanned aerial vehicles for medical product transport. Air Med J Assoc 34:104–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amj.2014.10.011CrossRef

Tilley A (2016) UPS experiments with drone delivery in partnership with Zipline. Forbes 2016

Tucker J (2017) Drones in healthcare. Retrieved on 13 Feb 2021 from: https://www.dronesinhealthcare.com

University of Washington School of Medicine; Department of Family Medicine (2010) The future of family medicine and implications for rural primary care physician supply. Available at https://depts.washington.edu/uwrhrc/uploads/RHRC_FR125_Rosenblatt.pdf. Accessed 22 July 2017

Varnholt H (2016) DHL’s drone demonstration fails to deliver. Wall Street Journal

Watts AC, Ambrosia VG, Hinkley EA (2012) Unmanned aircraft systems in remote sensing and scientific research: classification and considerations of use. Rem Sens 4(6):1671–1692. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs4061671CrossRef

What to Know When Using Humanitarian UAVs for Transportation (2015). Available at: https://irevolutions.org/2015/03/03/using-humanitarian-uavs-transportation

World Health Organization (2010) Increasing access to health workers in remote and rural areas through improved retention: Global policy recommendations. Available at www.searo.who.int/nepal/mediacentre/2010_increasing_access_to_health_workers_in_remote_and_rural_areas.pdf. Accessed 22 July 2017

Xiang T-Z, Xia G-S, Zhang L (2018) Mini-UAV-based remote sensing: techniques, applications and prospectives. arXiv 2018, arXiv:1812.07770v1. IEEE Geosci Remote Sens Mag (Vol 7, Issue: 3, Sept. 2019) https://doi.org/10.1109/MGRS.2019.2918840

Yu S, Heo J, Jeong S, Kwon Y (2016) Technical analysis of VTOL UAV. J Comput Commun 04(15):92–97. https://doi.org/10.4236/jcc.415008CrossRef

Zhao X, Zhou XZ (2018) Design of a lift-propulsion VTOL UAV system. IEEE international conference on mechatronics and automation (ICMA). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMA.2018.8484448

Title: Applications of Drones in the Health Industry
Authors: Kursat Alp Yigit
Alper Dalkiran
T. Hikmet Karakoc
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Design and Technology
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-45320-5

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-45321-2

Copyright Year: 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45321-2_5