A First in Europe: Belgian hospitals trial delivery drones to speed up transportation of human tissue

Bel­gian hos­pi­tals have start­ed tri­al­ing a drone deliv­er­ing human tis­sue sam­ples between patients on the oper­at­ing table and med­ical lab­o­ra­to­ries, to save time. This is a first in Europe, reports france24.com.

On Tues­day (August 23rd), a drone flown by a pri­vate con­trac­tor took off from an Antwerp build­ing in the ZNA hos­pi­tal group and flew 800 metres to land on the roof of the GZA group’s Sint-Augus­tus site.

Under­neath the quad­copter was a ster­ile flask con­tain­ing human tis­sue sam­ples to be test­ed for can­cer cells. This first tri­al flight was quick­ly fol­lowed by four more. Behind this project is pri­vate com­pa­ny Heli­cus, who is the only firm in Europe to have been grant­ed a license to use unmanned air­craft for med­ical pur­pos­es, over cities and to be oper­at­ed Beyond Visu­al Line of Sight (BVLOS).

The SABCA Team

The drone is man­u­fac­tured by the Bel­gian firm SABCA who is fund­ed by ‘Smart Mobil­i­ty Bel­gium’. Heli­cus hopes to devel­op a com­mer­cial oper­a­tion with reg­u­lar flights by 2024. Test­ing is ongo­ing, but the Euro­pean Union is expect­ed to adopt new rules next year that may see med­ical flights per­mit­ted across the 27-mem­ber bloc.

Michael Shamim, CEO of Heli­cus, told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) that hos­pi­tals are sav­ing mon­ey by cen­tral­is­ing test­ing labs, but then find­ing them­selves more dis­tant from patients. He explained, ”You need a fast logis­tics sys­tem. And that’s where the drones come in.”

The direct routes drones can fly between hos­pi­tal facil­i­ties are quick­er and more reli­able than oth­er means of trans­port. Antwer­p’s two big hos­pi­tal groups, ZNA and GZA, han­dle 1,200 tis­sue sam­ples extract­ed dur­ing surgery per year, and these must be analysed rapid­ly in order to decide the course of an oper­a­tion. Present­ly, sam­ples are tak­en to the city’s four labs by road, often by taxi.

Sabine Decler­cq

Sabine Decler­cq, an Antwerp-based pathol­o­gist, said, ”When remov­ing a tumour, the sur­geon tries to spare sur­round­ing tis­sue as much as pos­si­ble. But to ensure the tumour has been com­plete­ly removed, sam­ples are sent to the lab dur­ing the pro­ce­dure and the returned results must fall with­in thir­ty min­utes.”

For the moment, only sam­ples intend­ed for analy­sis such as human tis­sue and urine are to be deliv­ered by drones, but Heli­cus hopes soon to car­ry blood trans­fu­sions and donor organs direct to patients.

(News Source: https://www.france24.com/en/)

(Top pic: Heli­cus)