Test flight: A drone that could pick up medical cargo lands in Kassel Clinic. The first test flights under real conditions are scheduled to take place this year.
Image: dpa
In northern Hesse, tests are being carried out to determine whether medicines, blood supplies or tissue samples can be transported quickly and safely with unmanned flying objects. If everything goes well, even the doctor can get to his patients in this way.
AAll good things come from above: In northern Hesse, the transport of medical cargo by drone is to be tested under real conditions. The “Airmour” research project, funded by the European Union (EU) with around six million euros, has now been presented in Kassel. The aim of those involved, including the regional management of North Hesse and the health Nordhessen Holding clinic group, is to start the first test flights within a year, said the managing director of the regional management, Kai Georg Bachmann. While the tests are initially only about the rapid transport of organs, blood supplies and tissue samples from patients as well as medicines, larger, remote-controlled drones could eventually be used to fly doctors directly to the scene or transport emergency patients to the hospital by the shortest possible route.
However, that is still a long way off. The North Hessian drone testers are currently considering significantly less complex operations. In the future, for example, an unmanned aircraft could transport a sample of human tissue to a laboratory for analysis within a few minutes during an ongoing operation. The patient from whom this so-called quick section would have been taken would remain under anesthesia until the surgeon could decide on the further course of action and the scope of the intervention based on the results of the pathological examination. The shorter this period of time, the better.