Tag: drones

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease Emergency MedicineTags :

In Sweden, Drone-delivered Defibrillators Fly to the Rescue

On By ModernMedia
Photo by David Bartus on Pexels

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have evaluated dispatching drones equipped with automated external defibrillators (AED) to patients with suspected cardiac arrest. In more than half of the cases, the drones were ahead of the ambulance by an average of three minutes. The drone-delivered defibrillator was used in a majority of the cases which proved to be cardiac arrests. The results have been published in The Lancet Digital Health.   

“The use of an AED is the single most important factor in saving lives. We have been deploying drones equipped with AED since the summer of 2020 and show in this follow-up study that drones can arrive at the scene before an ambulance by several minutes. This lead time has meant that the AED could be used by people at the scene in several cases,” says Andreas Claesson, Associate Professor at the Center for Cardiac Arrest Research at the Department of Clinical Research and Education, Södersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet, and principal investigator of the study.   

Every year, around 6000 people in Sweden suffer a sudden cardiac arrest, but only a tenth of those affected survive. Although an early shock with a AED can dramatically increase the chance of survival and there are tens of thousands of AED in the community, they are not available in people’s homes where most cardiac arrests occur.   

Since 2020, in an effort to cut the time to defibrillation with an AED, Karolinska Institutet, together with Region Västra Götaland, SOS Alarm and the drone operator Everdrone, have tested the possibility of dispatched an AED-carrying drone at the same time as an ambulance is alerted. The project covered an area of approximately 200 000 people in western Sweden. An initial study conducted in the summer of 2020 in Gothenburg and Kungälv showed that the idea was feasible and safe.    

“This more comprehensive and follow-up study now shows in a larger material that the methodology works throughout the year, summer and winter, in daylight and darkness. Drones can be alerted, arrive, deliver AED, and people on site have time to use the AED before the ambulance arrives,” says Sofia Schierbeck, PhD student at the same department and first author of the study.   

In the study, drones delivered a AED in 55 cases of suspected cardiac arrest. In 37 of these cases, the delivery took place before an ambulance, corresponding to 67%, with a median lead of 3 minutes and 14 seconds. In the 18 cases of actual cardiac arrest, the caller managed to use the AED in six cases, representing 33%. A shock was recommended by the device in two cases and in one case the patient survived.   

“Our study now shows once and for all that it is possible to deliver AED with drones and that this can be done several minutes before the arrival of the ambulance in connection with acute cardiac arrest,” says Andreas Claesson. “This time saving meant that the healthcare emergency centre could instruct the person who called the ambulance to retrieve and use the AED in several cases before the ambulance arrived.”  

The research was mainly funded by the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation.

Source: Karolinska Institutet

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

Drone-delivered Defibs Beat Ambulances to Cardiac Arrests

On By ModernMedia
Photo by David Bartus from Pexels

In a unique pilot project in Sweden, drones were used to deliver defibrillators to real-life alerts of suspected cardiac arrest. The drones were dispatched in more than a fifth of the emergencies and arrived on target and ahead of the ambulance in most cases. 

”This is the first time in the world that a research group can report results from a study where drones flew defibrillators to location of real-life alerts of suspected cardiac arrest,” says lead researcher Andreas Claesson, associate professor at the Center for Resuscitation Science at the Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet.

With sudden cardiac arrest, every minute counts. Currently, the odds of surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are 10 percent. However, with early CPR and a shock from an automated external defibrillator (AED), the chances of survival could reach 50-70 percent but response time needs to improve. In 2019 the median response time from alert to ambulance arrival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in Sweden was 11 minutes.  
To try and reach cardiac arrest victims sooner, researchers investigated using the rapid dispatch of drone-carried defibrillators in parallel with ambulances. Drones are already used in some countries to dispatch medicines and medical supplies to remote rural regions, The study, conducted in mid-2020 in western Sweden, describes an integrated method where emergency operators, drone pilots and air traffic control worked together to facilitate the dual response.

The drones took off in response to 12 out of 53 alerts of suspected cardiac arrest over a four-month period, successfully delivering an AED to the site in 11 of those cases. In seven of those cases, the drones arrived before the ambulance, with a median time benefit of 1 minute and 52 seconds. However, no drone-delivered defibrillators were attached to the patients before ambulances arrived.

“Even if none of the AEDs were used this time, our study shows that it is possible to use drones to transport defibrillators in a safe way and with target precision during real-life emergencies,” said first-author Sofia Schierbeck, PhD student at the Center for Resuscitation Science at the Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet. “A precondition for their future use is that the dispatcher takes initiative and instructs people on site to quickly collect and attach the AED in order to help the person with cardiac arrest.”

More work is needed to increase the dispatch rate and time benefits. For instance, in 2020 the drones were grounded if it was dark, rainy or the winds were too strong. The software system was also configured to avoid routes above densely populated areas, meaning that some alerts were too far out of range.

“Since this study was completed, we have identified several areas of improvement,” Andreas Claesson said. “In April this year, we began a follow-up study with a more optimised system. In that study, we want to test if we can use the drones in more alerts and reduce the response time further and thereby increase the time benefit as compared to the ambulance. Every minute without treatment in the early stages reduces the chance of survival by around 10 percent, and that is why we believe this new method of delivery has the potential to save lives.”

The results are published in the European Heart Journal.

Source: Karolinska Institute

Categories : Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

India Tests Out Drones for Medical Deliveries

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Thomas Bjornstad on Unsplash

An aviation firm has carried out the first tests in India of drone deliveries at long ranges, in a step towards one day delivering medicines as well as COVID vaccines to remote areas.

India, with a population of 1.3 billion people spread across some 3.2 million square kilometres is the world’s seventh-largest country by land mass. Experts say that widespread use of drones could be a game-changer for medical services in the South Asian nation’s hard-to-reach rural areas with often poor roads and lack of healthcare infrastructure.

Drones are a cost-effective alternative to road transport in difficult terrains. They can be used in the transport of blood from the blood bank to the place of surgery and that of specimens from hard-to-reach areas to the labs in nearby towns. They can deliver essential medicines like anti-venom for snake bite and dog bite and prevent deaths.

Throttle Aerospace Systems is among 20 organisations granted permits by the government since May to conduct experimental flights beyond the current limit of 450 metres.

Two drones were tested in the southern state of Karnataka: one that can carry up to one kilogramme for 20 kilometres for nearly an hour, and another that can lift two kilogrammes for 15 kilometres.

“Medicines was the payload here and… 2.5 kilometres were covered in seven minutes and it delivered the medicines at the designated point and the drone returned,” Throttle’s co-founder, Sebastian Anto, told AFP at the test site.

This month the Indian government also invited bids from drone operators to help set up a pilot project for the delivering of medical supplies as it seeks to bolster its flagging COVID vaccination drive.

Samiran Panda,  epidemiology chief of the Indian Council of Medical Research, told The Hindu daily newspaper that the technology could help innoculate priority groups in hard-to-reach places.

“We need smart vaccination instead of mass vaccination to stem an epidemic,” Panda told the newspaper last week.

However, India lags behind many other nations when it comes to drones both in terms of their uses and the regulatory framework.Under current regulations, they have to be flown in full view, or within 450 metres, of their operators on the ground.

In Germany, it is reported that researchers are testing drone prototypes that can track down disaster victims by their screams. In Australia, drones using artificial intelligence algorithms are being used to spot crocodiles and count koalas in rugged terrain.

“Drone technology would have a huge impact in those areas where emergency medicines and vaccines could be supplied,” co-founder of lobby group the Drone Federation of India, Vipul Singh, told AFP.

“Where it takes a few hours to travel 20-30 kilometres by road, whereas a drone can actually travel that distance in 10 to 15 minutes,” said Singh, also the co-founder of Bangalore-based Aarav Unmanned Systems.

Source: Medical Xpress

Categories : COVID General InterestTags :

Drone Company to Start New Rural Vaccine Delivery Service

On By ModernMedia

Zipline, a company that has made its name using drones to deliver medicines to remote locations in countries like Rwanda, has announced that it is to expand its capability to include all COVID vaccines.

In a press release, Zipline said that it is partnering with a COVID vaccine manufacturer, the identity of which was not disclosed, to add on the ability to deliver vaccines that require ultra cold temperatures in specialised refrigerated containers.

For remote rural locations, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is not an option because of  its stringent temperature storage requirements of minus 70 degrees celsius. In such situations, the choice of COVID vaccines is limited to the more expensive Moderna vaccine, which still requires freezing temperatures, or vaccines like those from Johnsons & Johnson or AstraZeneca, which don’t have as high effectiveness but are able to be stored at normal refrigerator temperature ranges.

Zipline is planning to add these ultracold storage refrigerators at all of its drone bases. A clinic in its network would be able to request a few dozen doses of vaccine, and the company’s drones would be able to deliver it in a special refrigerated container.

Zipline operates fixed-wing, battery-powered drones that can make a round trip of up to 80 kilometres. Each base that the drones operate from can service an area of over 22 500 square kilometres, completely ignoring difficult terrain and lack of road access which may endanger drivers. A trip which could take hours in a 4 by 4 can be done in under an hour.
The drones can deliver a 1.75kg payload by parachute at a designated location, and return to base. Since the drone navigates by GPS, it can do so in a range of weather conditions, and by day or night.

Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo said that his company wants to help rural areas that have been hard hit by COVID. “Where you live shouldn’t determine whether or not you get a COVID-19 vaccine,” he said in the release. “We can help health systems bypass infrastructure and supply chain challenges through instant delivery.”

Source: Bloomberg