Drones to Deliver Blood Samples for London Hospital

A London hospital plans to test medical drone delivery service for on-demand transportation of urgent pathology items including blood samples.

Guy’s and St. Thomas NHS Foundation Trust teamed with health care logistics company Apian and drone delivery company Wing to offer on-demand drone delivery, a service the hospital said could pave the way for delivery of other medical items.

“The drone pilot combines two of our key priorities – providing the best possible patient care and improving sustainability,” said professor Ian Abbs, chief executive at Guy's and St Thomas. “We are proud to be the first trust in London to trial this innovative approach to help speed up blood sample analysis for our most urgent cases.”

Electric drones will transport urgent blood samples, speeding turnaround times to improve patient care, the hospital said. 

By using drones, delivering samples between Guy’s Hospital and the lab at St. Thomas Hospital is expected to take fewer than two minutes compared to more than 30 minutes by raod. The test would include transporting blood samples for patients slated for surgery who are at high-risk for complications from bleeding disorders, allowing for quicker and more efficient analysis. 

Apian co-founder Dr. Hammad Jeilani said drones can increase the responsiveness and resilience of health care logistics, allowing clinicians to be more productive and patients to get the care they need sooner. 

Related:Drones to Deliver Medical Supplies to Dublin Hospitals

“An NHS drone delivery network in London, starting with this innovative trial, will provide on-demand, automated and sustainable deliveries, helping the NHS create more efficient models of working and our doctors and nurses to deliver the highest quality care for patients,” Jeilani said. 

The test is expected to last six months and start this fall.

In July, Apian and Wing teamed to test a program to deliver medical supplies to South Dublin hospitals.

The trial, which was scheduled to last three to six months, would initially bring Medtronic’s ingestible camera, PillCam, as well as sutures, surgical tools and heart-valve repair products, to Dublin’s Blackrock Clinic and St. Vincent’s Private Hospital. Future deliveries would expand to pacemakers and implantable cardiac defibrillators.