 |
| The ambulance drone delivers defibrillation to a mock patient.--Courtesy of TU Delft |
Drones are used to kill bad guys in war zones, but graduate student Alex Momont wants to use them to save lives. He has developed a prototype drone capable of flying to the rescue of heart attack victims by delivering a defibrillator to the site much faster than an ambulance would.
"These drones create an ultrafast response system capable of increasing the survival chance from 8% to 80%. This is because the ambulance drone is not affected by current road infrastructure, but is capable of flying in a straight line," says the student at TU Delft University in the Netherlands in a university video, adding that the ambulance drone can fly at speeds around 60 miles per hour.
The dramatic video demonstration shows how the technology could work. Upon seeing her father lying on the ground from a heart attack, an actress calls the emergency operator, who sends the drone to the site based on the location of her cell phone. The actress picks up the 9-pound drone near the entrance to the building and rushes back to her father. Next, she pulls the defibrillation pads out of the drone and places them on her father, enabling the defibrillator to save his life.
In addition to an internal defibrillator, the drone also contains a video camera and speaker phone so that the emergency operator can give real-time instructions and answer questions from the caregiver about how to perform defibrillation. That is a benefit that should not be overlooked, Momont says. But the main attraction of the ambulance drone is the speed of emergency care it can provide.
"'If we can get to an emergency scene faster we can save many lives and facilitate the recovery of many patients. This especially applies to emergencies such as heart failure, drownings, traumas and respiratory problems, and it has become possible because life-saving technologies, such as a defibrillator, can now be designed small enough to be transported by a drone," Momont said in the university news release.
"The costs should not be an issue. I have calculated these at approximately €15,000 per drone ($18,593), which is clearly a reasonable amount if you consider the number of lives that could be saved," he continued in the news release.
But legal and infrastructure challenges could prove to be roadblocks. The Netherlands does not allow drones to fly autonomously, as the ambulance drone is supposed to, as it will use GPS to find the site of the emergency. TU Delft says the law is expected to change in 2015. In addition, to be viable, an entire network of ambulance drones is needed. And the technology is unproven, having never been tested in an actual emergency. The object avoidance system to prevent midair collisions also needs improvement, the release says.
Still, Momont thinks the ambulance drone could become operational in 5 years. It is being developed in collaboration with Belgium's Ghent University Hospital and Ghent University, as well as the Amsterdam Ambulance Service.
Though the drone seems to be straight out of science fiction, Momont is not alone. MedCity News reported last year that a German team is working on a similar concept to deliver defibrillation via drone. Also, Silicon Valley startup Matternet is field testing drones to deliver medical supplies in Papua New Guinea, Bhutan, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
- read the university news release and watch the video
- here's the article in MedCity News