medical

Canadian UAV transport specialist Drone Delivery Canada has effectively fused two different operational authorizations it had earned from regulators in past into a unified approval to fly beyond visual line of sight missions (BVLOS) while carrying medical payloads classified as dangerous cargo.

It would appear that medical drone delivery company Spright has become a victim of owner Air Methods’ recent financial crisis, which evidently resulted in the Denver-based aviation services firm closing its fledging UAV unit under terms of its Chapter 11 rebound agreement.

Like the state itself, everything is really, really big in Texas – including the distances separating remote towns from teeming urban areas. Now Texas Tech University is moving to bridge those gaps that often undermine healthcare in more isolated locales by testing drone deliveries using Australian UAV company Swoop Aero craft.

Global instant logistics leader Zipline will initiate its medical drone delivery activity in the UK by assuming a central role in an aerial network planning to serve over 30 hospitals and other healthcare facilities operated by northwest England’s regional unit of the National Health System (NHS).

Commercial drone systems developer Matternet says it has been selected to operate medical deliveries between Berlin hospitals and laboratories in a project that will involve the first ever beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) UAV flights over the German capital.

Australian drone delivery company Swoop Aero has returned to sector headlines after a long period of maintaining a relatively low profile by playing a critical role in the recently completed trial of Ethiopia’s first UAV medical distribution system.

Were there any lingering doubt about the contribution drones can make to emergency response activity, it has now been dispelled by a Lancet study of Swedish drone startup Everdrone’s performance in rushing life-saving defibrillators (AEDs) to cardiac arrest victims.

Toronto-based aerial services company Drone Delivery Canada announced that it completed a medical transport trial in Michigan, where its UAVs were tested for use as reinforcements to habitual ground options rather than as immediate replacements.

Scotland’s bid to launch what it says will be the world’s first nation-wide medical drone delivery network has taken another step forward with the completion of its first live trial flight near Glasgow.

Leading instant logistics and UAV transport specialist Zipline has announced a new partnership with healthcare giant Cleveland Clinic involving an evolving operation that will begin with drone delivery of medication directly to patients’ homes.

France’s budding UAV services startup Delivrone has teamed up with one of Europe’s most ambitious and fast-moving drone delivery companies, RigiTech, to initiate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) missions between French hospitals – including rare nighttime flights.

Swedish medical drone specialist Everdrone is upgrading its aerial first response capabilities with the launch of its E2 drone, a craft designed to accelerate, diversify, and improve the critical care provided in emergencies.

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.

Innovative Swiss UAV-glider company Jedsy is partnering with German medical group Asklepios Kliniken in a project to create a broad network of drone delivery routes between hospitals and labs that analyze patient blood, tissue, and other samples.

A French tech startup is to looking to speed the processing of medical analyses – and resulting treatment – by delivering patient samples between medical facilities using drones for a group of hospitals in the country’s Normandy region.

As an additional reminder that you can’t make everyone happy – especially in this divided, frequently infuriated world – a UK medical drone delivery project has come under considerable fire for its efforts to seek prolonged flight restrictions across an expanse of airspace that locals say would effectively shut down local air traffic.

The looming arrival of battery-powered air taxis may conjure futuristic, Jetson-esque images of urban aerial travel, but California aviation startup Jump Aero is eschewing the allure – and anticipated profits – of that mass market transportation potential to develop an electric takeoff and landing plane (eVTOL) designed exclusively for getting medical responders to patients in time to provide critical care.

Aerial transport and services company Drone Delivery Canada has won work with a Canadian government defense agency for an initial series of trials of the startup’s Canary UAV, which if successful could lead to an extension of the relationship.

Google’s corporate drone delivery cousin Wing is continuing to expand its international network with the planned launch of medical services in Dublin – a somewhat unconventional yet pragmatic first step in aerial transport in a nation where local hero Manna has established itself as an early leader in food conveyance.

In another indication that medical transport services may well be the largest initial activity for emerging drone delivery operators, UK company Skyports says it has successfully wrapped up a month-long trial of aerial shuttles with the nation’s EMED Group.

Swiss drone delivery company RigiTech has further expanded its zone of international activity with the launch of trial beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights of medical supplies in Uruguay.