An Indian hospital has partnered with a drone company to launch an operation to use drone technology to transport human organs.
Chennai-based private hospital MGM Healthcare made this revelation at a function held last Saturday to celebrate the hospital attaining 500 successful heart and lung transplant operations.
India holds between 17,000 and 18,000 solid organ transplantation operations every year, third behind the US and China. The operations call for sharp precision and significant coordination between transplant coordinators, organ donation organisations, recipients and donor hospital and transportation couriers.
If organ shipment is negatively affected or prolonged for any reason, organs experience increased cold ischaemia time which can further result in fatality.
That is why MGM Healthcare is exploring the effectiveness of drone delivery in getting the organs to their destination in time.
Hospital Director Prashanth Rajagopalan said his facility will be working with a yet unnamed drone services company to launch an operation for last mile organ delivery; where drone will transport organs from Chennai Airport to the hospital grounds.
At the moment organs collected from the airport are delivered to the hospital by road transportation, which – given the urgency required – is achieved by creating a corridor for the transport using the help of the police.
This, according to Rajagopalan, puts the public at an inconvenience; hence, the hospital is looking at drones as an alternative for carrying human organs from the airport and from other cities.
It looks like the first trials will be held for short journey from the airport, as the drone made for the purpose can only cover 20km.
The prototype drone was officially launched by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who praised MGM Healthcare for their contribution and added that this is an innovative approach to solving the problem of organ transportation.
"We have started the expressway project from Delhi to Dehradun. It will reduce time. I am very much cautious about organ transportation,” Gadkari.
“The transportation time will be lesser and the expressway will be greenfield alignment operated with a closed-door system.”
The concept of using drones to urgently deliver human organs to save lives first saw success in 2019, when the first drone organ delivery took place in Baltimore, with a kidney transported to the University of Maryland Medical Centre.
In September 2020, corneas and kidneys were delivered in Nevada, and in Minnesota, a successful pancreatic delivery happened by drone.