NC Health System's New mHealth Platform Uses Drones to Deliver Supplies

Wake Forest Baptist Health has expanded its mHealth platform with new drone delivery services – including PPE shipments for healthcare providers working with COVID-19 patients.

The North Carolina health system is using drones to deliver PPE and specialty infusion medicines, which are patient-specific and expensive and half a short shelf-life, to distant sites in the health network.

The program is one of several around the country aiming to use drones and mobile healthcare delivery vehicles, targeting areas where access to healthcare is difficult. In California, for example, San Diego’s Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine is partnering with Deloitte to study the use of drones in improving care for seriously ill children.

“This technology opens many possibilities for providing faster diagnosis for a variety of needs. Coupling rapid sequencing tests with rapid sample transport will speed the time to precise treatment and reduce the period of uncertainty both for providers and the parents of our patients,” Stephen Kingsmore, the hospital’s president and CEO, said in a January 2020 press release. “More babies’ and children’s lives can be saved – this what drives us.”

Wake Forest Baptist Health is partnering with Matternet and UPS Flight Forward (UPSFF) on the new program. The two partnered with WakeMed Health to launch the first healthcare-based revenue-generating drone delivery service in the US in 2019, and have coordinated more than 2,200 deliveries on 4,400 flights to and from WakeMed’s flagship hospital in Raleigh, NC.

“Drone transport will improve speed of deliveries at a lower cost, enhance access to care and create healthier communities,” Donald Gintzig, the health system’s president and CEO, said at the time. “WakeMed is committed to innovation, and we believe drone technology has the potential to achieve transformative improvements in health and healthcare delivery.”

In April, UPSFF and CVS Health announced a program to deliver prescription medicines by drone to The Villages, a Florida retirement community housing more than 135,000 seniors, to help improve access to care during the coronavirus pandemic.

The new service helps Wake Forest Baptist Health rush medical supplies to distant sites in its network without worrying about traffic or road conditions.

"Increasing efficiency of our supply chain routes helps provide better service to our patients and their families," Conrad Emmerich, the health system’s chief supply chain officer, said in a press release.

"Now more than ever it's important for hospitals to have reliable, predictable and efficient methods for transporting critical medicines and time-sensitive lab samples that need results quickly," added Andreas Raptopoulos, Matternet’s CEO. "We are thrilled to expand our partnership with UPSFF to other U.S. hospitals and work with Wake Forest Baptist to implement our drone logistics network that will help transform their operations and patient care."