Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are currently providing solutions across a wide range of environments and are utilized for a variety of unique and powerful applications.  This is especially true in the medical and emergency response industry, particularly in developing nations where underdeveloped infrastructure can delay emergency response times and access to medical supplies. In these scenarios, and in rural and remote communities, UAVs can provide emergency services personnel a means to evaluate a situation, assess risk and  deliver  rapid response.

With an increasing amount of global disasters, such as flooding, hurricanes, viral outbreaks, and military conflicts, UAVs are playing an increasing role in providing medical aid to persons in hard to reach or unsafe environments. This can also include providing medical relief disconnected from damaged infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, following an earthquake or flooding.

Emergency service providers in affected areas are working with drone companies to transport blood and other critical equipment to hospitals and field stations. Sending critical supplies via a UAV allow the supplies to reach their destination reliably, efficiently, and keep critical emergency service providers out of danger and focused on providing lifesaving care rather than being delivery drivers in compromised infrastructure. Although difficulties in countries such as Canada and the United States arise due to policies currently prohibiting most operations over built up areas, the regulations are progressing and we may begin to see medical deliveries in the first world sooner than we think.

Watch our video from the first UAV flight over a major Canadian city

UAVs are also being used to research how medical emergencies outbreaks spread. The U.S. military, an early adopter of UAV technology, is currently using UAVs in developing countries to gather data in this area of research. The military hopes to partner these countries’ governments to research the way in which a virus spreads and find a way to contain spreading rapidly in subsequent breakouts.  

UAVs are quickly becoming a reliable and safe way to get supplies to remote or dangerous areas along with researching public health concerns. Global UAV technologies is proud to be on the forefront of conducting boundary defining operations which will enable medical drone delivery and research  a means to providing efficient healthcare in both developed countries and rural communities. We hope to continue this trend and begin providing operations to emergency service providers in the future.