Urgent blood samples taken from patients will be sent for testing by drone to avoid London traffic in a UK first, a hospital in the British capital said on Tuesday.
The six-month trial set to begin in the coming weeks will send blood samples from Guy’s Hospital in south London to a lab via drones, cutting transport time from over 30 minutes to less than two minutes, according to project researchers.
The pilot project will help “improve patient outcomes and deliver significant environmental benefits”, according to Sophie O’Sullivan, director of future of flight at watchdog the Civil Aviation Authority, which is regulating the trial.
A test last month found that drone delivery did not damage the quality of the blood.
The blood samples pilot will be run with healthcare logistics company Apian and drone delivery company Wing.
Apian is also part of a National Health Service (NHS) programme delivering critical medical supplies to hospitals using drones, as well as a separate trial in Irish capital Dublin.
“Drones can increase the responsiveness and resilience of healthcare logistics, allowing clinicians to be more productive and patients to get the care they need sooner,” said Hammad Jeilani, co-founder of Apian.
The trial could pave the way for the wider use of drone delivery by hospitals in London.
Drones have been used to deliver blood samples for years to remote regions of Rwanda, with similar trials explored in various countries including Canada and India.