Could a drone delivery service for medicines improve healthcare?

Cindy Williams, Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer at Riverside Health, Virginia, USA, is leading a multidisciplinary project to implement medication delivery by drone in order to improve health outcomes in under-served communities. IMI spoke to her to find out more.

Riverside Health is located in the mid-Atlantic section of the United States, in Virginia. It comprises four hospitals, a mental health facility and has approximately 800 physicians or mid-level providers across roughly 100 locations of care. It has nursing homes, primary care services and some home-based services. The population served includes urban, suburban and rural communities. “Our most rural hospital [is] located on the Virginia Eastern Shore, which is not connected to the Virginia mainland, except by a 23-mile bridge tunnel”, she explains. In addition, one of the primary care locations (clinics) is situated on an island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. “It’s roughly 17 miles from the closest point on the mainland. So, as you can imagine, it’s very challenging to provide care for those individuals who tend to be lower income and medically underserved”, she adds.

The idea of using drones to deliver medicines arose from the realisation that some of the coastal communities have no public transport and have poor access to basic health care, including prescription medicines.  Moreover, “we also know, in that community, that we have a higher incidence of certain chronic illnesses, specifically hypertension, congestive heart failure and respiratory disorders such as COPD and asthma”, explains Ms Williams.

The funding for the project came from State and federal grants, starting with a small grant from the State of Virginia that “allowed us to really start discussing proof of concept”.  For the grant process, the hospital team partnered with the two counties that are represented on the Virginia Eastern Shore and with a drone vendor, DroneUp. They also partnered with a research group at Old Dominion University. “And interestingly enough, both of the gentlemen that we’re working with on this grant through the Old Dominion Innovation Center, had their backgrounds – their careers – were with NASA, so they were very knowledgeable, not only about flight, but also around federal funding …, as well as project management”, says Ms Williams.

Read and watch the full series on our website or on YouTube.