The future is already here, thanks to the increasingly advanced systems developed by some Italian centers operating in the medical-scientific sector. Among the innovations worth mentioning there is also the initiative of Cerba HealthCare Italythe group specializing in outpatient diagnostics and clinical analysis, which promoted the first experimental drone flight for the delivery of biological samples from the collection points to the analysis laboratories.
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Drones to transport blood samples for analysis: the first Italian flight was a success
The advanced air mobility test involved various locations of the healthcare facility in the Milan area, in particular the Cerba HealthCare Italia sampling centers in Opera and Rozzano. The flights were operated by the Nimbus company which designed and built the drone, which with its load it weighed about 25 kgand the sample containment system, under the supervision of D-Flight, the ENAV Group company that provides drone traffic management services, and ENAC (National Civil Aviation Authority).
The aircraft, piloted by a remote pilot, took off and completed the operation without problems. The samples to be analyzed traveled in a specially designed and certified box. The analyzes performed on arrival confirmed the biological integrity of the samples.
The advantages of this initiative
The drone, therefore, turns out to be a precious ally, as well as an environmentally sustainable solution, for avoid delays and impediments connected to city traffic on long or particularly congested routes. Furthermore, this new mode of transport could allow all patients in any location – even particularly remote – to take advantage of the analytical capacity of large state-of-the-art laboratories, without necessarily having to travel.
«The truly innovative aspect of the project is the possibility of combining a Proximity health service easily accessible to the patient clinical quality guaranteed by carrying out the analyzes on a large laboratory platform,” he comments Michele DeChirico, Chief Operation Officer of Cerba HealthCare Italy. “It’s about shorten times between the execution of the sampling and the outcome of the analyses, but not only: also improve patient care in more remote settings and less easily accessible with traditional means of logistics. The flight was performed in “BVLOS” mode, with no visual contact of the pilot with the drone, making the experiment as close as possible to the real conditions that will characterize these flights in the future. The result of today’s tests pushes us to continue on the path of innovation».
The center led by De Chirico, in fact, aims to bring this possibility in the next few yearsu the whole national territorybecoming a point of reference for the local communities of the country.
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