Instant logistics pioneer Zipline is expanding its activities with US healthcare clients through a new contract to provide drone deliveries across Pennsylvania for patients and clinics of WellSpan Health.
South San Francisco-based Zipline said it will be providing aerial deliveries for the WellSpan Health network across the Keystone State, using its second generation P2 drone loading, charging, and dispatching system. The services will fly individual prescriptions and other treatments directly to patients’ homes, and spirit urgent supplies, medications, lab samples, and other payloads between the 220 locations, eight hospitals, and 2,600 aligned physicians in WellSpan’s network.
The partnership between Zipline and WellSpan Health was described as the first to “introduce this type of technology and delivery system at scale in Pennsylvania.” Its use of drones aims to transport deliveries “up to seven times faster than current automotive” means.
No start date for the activity was provided. But in announcing previous contracts Zipline has said it will be trialing the P2 system it revealed last year throughout 2024, with live deployment planned towards the later part of the year.
The P2 platform integrates automated loading and charging hardware into client facilities, then dispatches a “Zip” transport drone that hovers over delivery sites and lowers a smaller, R2D2-esque payload droid that positions itself to the precise spots of package handovers.
Similar to Wing’s new tech, P2 also foresees the installation of charging docks throughout cities served, permitting UAVs to recharge whenever necessary. From there, they can be dispatched when a nearby client orders service, eliminating the longer times and distances of spoke-and-wheel, round-trip networks.
The deal will also allow WellSpan Health to benefit from the observer-free beyond visual line of sight authorization Zipline received last autumn, which is expected to enable broader scaling of drone deliveries at a faster pace. It also expands the startup’s list of medical clients, among which are Cleveland Clinic, Intermountain Health, and Michigan Medicine.
That domestic commercial activity – which includes work with retail giant Walmart, and food deliveries for a range of restaurants – follows Zipline’s long and ongoing drone transportation of vital medical supplies to bring access to healthcare to remote locales in several African nations. In doing so, the company says it has flown more than 65 million autonomous miles worldwide, completing a delivery every 70 seconds.
“Zipline has been improving access to healthcare for eight years,” Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton. “Together with WellSpan Health we will bring prescriptions and medical products right to patients’ doorsteps with fast, sustainable and convenient delivery.”
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