DroneUp initiates home drone deliveries of medicine across Virginia’s Eastern Shore

DroneUp has launched the first of its dedicated drone deliveries of medicine to patients’ homes in eastern Virginia – the first in a potentially broad range of aerial activities organized by a collective of businesses, universities, and non-profit associations to improve healthcare in the region.

Initially unveiled last spring, the now active program involves DroneUp flying medical prescriptions to residents of Virginia’s Eastern Shore from the local Riverside Health System hospital in Onancock. The first series of drone deliveries of hypertension medicines were directly made to patients living within a two-mile range of the facility, with the cadence, distance, and number flights expected to steadily increase.

The drone program will eventually also broaden payloads flown to other kinds of medicines – the focus of hypertension treatments at launch specifically addressing a condition affecting a disproportionately high precent of eastern Virginia residents. In addition to diversifying prescriptions transported, DroneUp also expects to expand operations to beyond visual line of sight deliveries to Tangier Island, whose inhabitants now rely on own car and boat transportation to receive orders that can take almost a week to arrive.

The DroneUp-operated Elevating Health Care Access medicine delivery scheme was selected for and partially funded by the Department of Transportation’s Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants Program. In addition to the Riverside Health System group, the Eastern Shore project is backed by the Virginia Institute for Spaceflight & Autonomy and Old Dominion University. 

Tom Walker, DroneUp CEO, says the startup welcomed the chance to become part of a program aiming to directly improve the healthcare and lives of fellow residents of Virginia – headquarters of the surging startup – in addition to its enterprise customers like Walmart.

“Drone technology will make healthcare more accessible, efficient, and patient-centric,” said Walker. “Delivering hypertension medications is just the beginning of what we envision for the future of healthcare and drones. After this successful first patient delivery, the team plans to demonstrate more extensive and further distance delivery and beyond visual line of site operations, eventually delivering to remote Tangier Island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.” 

Nick Chuquin, president of Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital in Onancock, said drone delivery of medicines directly to patients in their homes marks a significant improvement in ensuring treatment is available when and where it’s required.

“This collaborative project helps to improve our patient’s health and quality of life by increasing medication adherence and removing transportation barriers,” said Chuquin. “We are also focused on safety in all aspects: keeping the medications safe, such as temperature ranges, chain of custody, and double checks to make sure the right patient gets the right medication.”