In the article "Drones May Become ‘The Next Big Thing’ In Healthcare Delivery," Balasubramanian (2022) introduces the public to the features and applications of drone technology in the modern healthcare sector. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati reported that drones enable the healthcare industry to provide care to patients in remote areas by effectively utilising drones equipped with cameras for telehealth and virtual care, allowing them to connect virtually and provide patients with the necessary aid. Balasubramanian proclaims that drones fitted with waterproof boxes the size of small first-aid kits allow for fast and intact delivery of healthcare supplies and goods (i.e., COVID-19 vaccines) globally. A study published by the European Heart Journal (2021) increases the usage of drones to attend to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients by delivering patients with automatic external defibrillators (AEDs). According to the study, drones had a 92% delivery success rate, and AED drones arrived before ambulances (Schierbeck et at.,2011). As a result, the usage of AEDs in the early-cardiac arrest period increased survival rates to 50-70% (Balasubramanian, 2021). Healthcare industries should adopt and implement drone technology to provide pharmaceutical care to rural areas due to its mobility, time efficiency, and eco-friendliness.
In terms of making deliveries to rural areas, drones allow healthcare industries to bridge the gap between rural communities and healthcare due to their mobility. Half of the world's population lacks access to healthcare (Snouffer, 2022). With the rising problem of diseases, healthcare in rural areas such as Africa faces several challenges (Anim-Yeboah, Apau & Preko, 2022). Rural communities have poor access to healthcare and are geographically far from hospitals (Brown, 2022). Nevertheless, drones are a potential solution for ensuring that everyone, regardless of where they live, has access to high-quality healthcare (Liu & Reuter, 2021). The current method of delivering medical supplies between islands by helicopter is inefficient and may result in some of the most isolated places being overlooked due to insufficient landing zone areas for the helicopters (Brown, 2022). A cargo drone is six times smaller compared to a helicopter making it easier to land (Brown, 2022). With the ability to fly vertically, drones require minimal landing space and may drop goods from a low hover, sometimes utilising biodegradable parachutes to make aerial deliveries (Balasingam, 2017).
Regarding time efficiency, drone deliveries provide a faster and more efficient way of distributing goods. Drone delivery reduces distance and time traversed since they can move in three dimensions and are not physically confined by a road network (Moshrev-Javadi, Lee & Winkenbach, 2020). Unlike traditional delivery vehicles like trucks, drones are not affected by traffic congestion allowing them to travel faster significantly, cutting down delivery time (Moshrev-Javadi et al., 2020). Drones also can reduce the response time during health emergencies, for example, the transfer of blood or other medical supplies from a medical facility to remote villages, helping to save more lives (Nyaaba & Ayamga, 2021).
Furthermore, substituting drones for traditional delivery methods reduces air pollution, making them an appealing solution for enabling sustainable and environmentally friendly transportation systems. The transportation industry accounts for 15% of worldwide carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (Chiang, Li, Shang & Urban, 2019). Drones are electrically operated and require less energy consumption, thus emitting a lesser amount of greenhouse gas emission, lowering the carbon footprint and improving environmental sustainability (Borghetti et al., 2021; Chiang et al., 2019). An analysis shows that greenhouse gas emissions per parcel were 84% lower for drones than diesel vehicles (Krier, 2022). Despite drones traveling more distance along an identical route because of carrying one package at a time, studies still show that drones emit less carbon dioxide than trucks (French, 2022).
However, concern regarding drones is that their lightweight batteries are incapable of providing sufficient power for heavy loads and long-distance delivery (Frachtenberg, 2019). The drone’s battery life is determined by the payload that is inversely proportional to the battery consumption rate (Torabbeigi, M. & Lim, G. J., 2020). However, efforts are underway to develop a hybrid tuck-drone delivery that focuses on the strengths of these individual vehicles that can be selectively and synergistically exploited (Jeong, & Song, 2019).
In conclusion, drones are coherent in providing rural areas with access to healthcare due to their mobility, particularly in countries such as India and Africa. Drones are also time-efficient since they require less time to make deliveries and respond to emergencies. Drones are also eco-friendly since they produce fewer air pollutants. Notably, the battery capacity of drones limits their ability to offer pharmaceutical care to rural areas. However, there are methods for increasing battery capacity to achieve an efficient battery-to-payload ratio. As a result of its capabilities, drones are ideal for providing pharmaceutical care to rural areas.
Reference:
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