The FDA recently allowed UPS and Matternet, a drone firm, to make regular deliveries between two buildings of the WakeMed hospital system in Raleigh, North Carolina. These are regular commercial flights that are helping WakeMed get more efficiency out of their centralized laboratory, allowing clinicians to send patient samples for analysis faster than ever before.
Currently, a four-wheeled vehicle is used to make deliveries, but traffic and the required timing make this process slower than ideal. In the initial phase, a drone will make regular flights between a medical park and the central laboratory, which are only about a third of a mile (1/2 Km) apart. If everything works out, the plan is to expand the program to other buildings within WakeMed, some of which are miles away.
Via: UPS…
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