Application of Drones in Medicine and Healthcare

A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2024) | Viewed by 1441

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King’s College London, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH, UK
Interests: delivery of medicines by drone; the maintenance of quality of medicines and medical products by drone; exploration of the relationship between solid state properties and the performance of pharmaceutical materials and medicines
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Guest Editor
Tec-Connection, Oberlohnstrasse 3, D78467 Konstanz, Germany
Interests: laboratory robotics; materials logistics in the laboratory; system engineering; technology transfer
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) also known as drones, have begun to make an impact on human health through a range of different application. The aim of this special issue is to bring together high-quality papers reporting the recent advances in drone technology, applications, and approaches. We welcome practitioners in the development of drones for healthcare solutions, aiming to bring the findings of their UAV research to a wide audience and influential audience.

The editors of the special issue especially invite papers covering innovation and data rich studies in the following areas.

  • Drone logistics and deliveries in the support of healthcare:
    • Point of care UAV delivered treatments.
    • Medicine drone delivery.
    • UAV healthcare logistics (blood, organs, vaccinations, inventory).
    • Patient samples and diagnostics by drone.
  • Emergency response and disaster relief facilitated by drones:
    • Emergency patient-oriented medicine, AEDs & resuscitation response by Drone
    • UAV’s supporting disaster response, environment, mapping, surveying, imaging, search & rescue.
  • Public health:
    • Guidance, monitoring, and pattern recognition in the assessment of mental health.
    • Sampling and monitoring environmental threats to health.
    • Population monitoring needs assessment and support of communities.
  • Methodological approaches to UAV research & development.
    • Evidence-based, FAIR data, healthcare drone ontologies, real-world data
    • Economic evaluation of drone delivered healthcare
    • Compliance aviation, medical (stability, GLP GMP packaging GDP)
    • Ethical, co-creation, co-design, privacy preserving drone solutions.

All contributions to the special issue must include thorough experimental design and the appropriate sampling to allow statistical evaluation of the research findings.

Dr. Paul Royall
Dr. Patrick Courtney
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • public health
  • emergency response
  • mapping of health needs
  • drone medical deliveries
  • treatments by UAV
  • diagnosis by dron
  • healthcare logistics
  • UAV economies
  • drone solution co-design
  • data rich

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 1933 KiB  
Article
Limited Impact of Drone Transport of Blood on Platelet Activation
by Nico Callewaert, Inge Pareyn, Tessa Acke, Brian Desplinter, Kyana Van de Pitte, Joke Van Vooren, Mathieu De Meyer, Ellen Seeldraeyers, Frank Peeters, Simon F De Meyer, Karen Vanhoorelbeke and Claudia Tersteeg
Drones 2024, 8(12), 752; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8120752 - 12 Dec 2024
Abstract
The rapid transportation of blood samples and blood products using drones has high potential in the medical sector. However, before this can be implemented, sufficient evidence that drone transportation is not affecting clinical outcomes is needed. Currently, limited data on the stability of [...] Read more.
The rapid transportation of blood samples and blood products using drones has high potential in the medical sector. However, before this can be implemented, sufficient evidence that drone transportation is not affecting clinical outcomes is needed. Currently, limited data on the stability of blood, and specifically on platelet activation, after transport using drones are available. Therefore, the impact of drone transportation on platelet activation parameters was analyzed. Blood was drawn from 20 healthy volunteers and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), potassium, free hemoglobin, PFA-100 closure time, platelet factor 4 (PF4) plasma levels and platelet activation membrane markers were determined in blood that was transported by drone and compared to non-transported samples. In addition, a control group was included where blood samples were transported by car. Transport by both drone and car increased LDH and potassium levels, but the values mostly remained within the total allowable error. Both drone and car transportation impacted platelet activation, as indicated by a small increase in the baseline P-selectin expression and increased PF4 plasma levels. To our knowledge, this is the first study assessing the impact of drone transport on platelet activation. Transportation of blood tubes from healthy individuals using drones has only minimal impacts on blood stability and platelet activation parameters, and is comparable to blood transportation by car. Therefore, the effects observed as a result of drone transportation will likely not impact clinical decision making. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Drones in Medicine and Healthcare)
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17 pages, 1065 KiB  
Article
Potential and Challenges in Airborne Automated External Defibrillator Delivery by Drones in a Mountainous Region
by Christian Wankmüller, Ursula Rohrer, Philip Fischer, Patrick Nürnberger and Ewald Kolesnik
Drones 2024, 8(10), 525; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8100525 - 26 Sep 2024
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Abstract
Delivering an automated external defibrillator (AED) to a patient suffering from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) as quickly as possible is a critical task. In this field, airborne drones may help to overcome long response times, especially in mountainous regions where topography and weather [...] Read more.
Delivering an automated external defibrillator (AED) to a patient suffering from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) as quickly as possible is a critical task. In this field, airborne drones may help to overcome long response times, especially in mountainous regions where topography and weather pose several challenges for rescuers. Drones are considered a fast option to shorten the time to the first AED shock. This study presents insights into the safety regulations, performance, reliability and public perception of this specific drone-based application. The findings are based on field tests that focused on the operational/logistical benefits and challenges of semi-autonomous drone-based AED delivery to simulated emergency sites in mountainous terrain. The generated results underline the operational and technical feasibility of the proposed system given successful AED delivery in all simulation scenarios. Several challenges remain, such as improvements in terms of the AED pick-up, mobile phone connectivity, tracking of GPS coordinates and weather resistance of the used drone are required. Overall, the study supports paving the way for future trials and real-world implementations of drones into existing emergency response systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Drones in Medicine and Healthcare)
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