Everdrone has announced it has expanded its life-saving drone delivery service into Denmark after an agreement with the Copenhagen Emergency Medical Services. The service is expected to go live in the spring of 2021 and is expected to reach more than 100,000 people.
Everdrone’s service will expand to Denmark after an agreement was reached with the Copenhagen Emergency Medical Services to come on-board as a research partner to work alongside the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
The drones can be in the air within minutes and have a flight radius of about 3.7 miles. The drones will be carrying defibrillators and will be routed to areas where ambulances aren’t able to reach in a reasonable amount of time.
Everdrone also received €350,000 (~ $414,000) from the Eurostars-2 Joint Program and co-funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program for the work the company is doing.
Mats Sällström, CEO of Everdrone said:
“The deployment of the drone system in Gothenburg is a great start and we hope to make it a permanent part of Sweden’s emergency dispatch. Throughout the project, we have built a solid experience and learned lessons for the future. Based on what we have learned, we will refine the technology and operational procedures to improve response times with faster drones and optimized route planning, to make the system even more efficient and robust before launching in Denmark.”
Fredrik Folke, Head of Research at the Copenhagen Emergency Medical Services followed with:
“In a cardiac arrest situation, it’s all about the response time and initiating treatment very quickly. By ensuring that our operators provide high-quality CPR instructions via phone, while the drone delivers an AED to the scene within minutes, bystanders can initiate life-saving measures before the arrival of the ambulance. The method of using drones to deliver emergency medical supplies shows great potential and may save numerous lives.”
How it works
Once an emergency call comes in, dispatchers send both a drone and an ambulance. The drone will usually arrive before the ambulance. It lowers the defibrillator with a winch from a height of 30 meters (about 98 feet). AEDs are designed to be used by anyone. And the hope is that someone on-site can use the device if paramedics are delayed in getting to the scene. Speed is crucial, as survival rates shoot up to 70% if a patient receives help within the first few minutes.
Everdrone’s drone is equipped with an Intel-based RealSense obstacle avoidance system and intelligent route planning to improve efficiency. A parachute system ensures the drone will land safely in the event of a mishap. As the drone in the video below looks to be a DJI Matrice 600 Pro, it also comes with DJI’s safety features. These include triple IMU and GPS redundancy, low voltage protection, smart return to home, and motor fault detection, which allows it to land safely, even if it’s missing a propeller.
Photo: Everdrone
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments