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The big picture: Hospitals around the world have increasingly adopted drones to transport blood in urgent situations. While the tech has typically been used in rural or suburban areas, a new pilot project in central London will mark one of the first instances of medical drones operating in a densely populated region.
The UK's National Health Service (NHS) is launching a medical drone delivery service in central London to transport urgent blood samples between Guy's Hospital and St Thomas' Hospital.
The project is a collaboration between the NHS, Wing (an Alphabet subsidiary), and Apian, a healthcare logistics startup founded by former NHS doctors.
The service aims to significantly reduce delivery times for critical blood samples, benefiting patients at high risk of complications from bleeding disorders during surgery.
Wing's drones, capable of flying at speeds of approximately 100 km/h, will complete the journey between the two hospital rooftops in under two minutes. Currently, van and motorbike couriers take over 30 minutes to cover the same distance.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority has granted airspace approval for the operation, with the final regulatory requirements expected to be completed before the official launch. The six-month trial will initially focus on transporting blood samples, with the potential to expand to a broader range of pathology items, medicines, and supplies.
The London initiative builds on Wing and Apian's existing partnership in Ireland, where they already deliver medical supplies, including surgical tools and devices.
The partnership also highlights the environmental benefits of electric drones, which could reduce emissions by up to 99 percent compared to traditional road transport.
As the trial progresses, it could pave the way for broader implementation across other London hospitals and NHS trusts.
Several hospitals worldwide are already exploring drone-based medical deliveries. For example, WakeMed Health partnered with UPS and drone company Matternet to transport lab samples and medical supplies between its facilities in Raleigh, North Carolina. Launched in 2019, it was one of the first FAA-approved drone delivery services for a US hospital system.
In 2017, Johns Hopkins researchers set a record for the longest medical drone delivery, transporting human blood samples 161 miles across the Arizona desert. Throughout the three-hour flight, the on-board payload system maintained their target temperature, ensuring the samples were viable for laboratory analysis after landing.
"We expect that in many cases, drone transport will be the quickest, safest, and most efficient option to deliver some biological samples to a laboratory from rural or urban settings," Timothy Amukele, assistant professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said at the time.