The UK has made a major step towards the delivery of blood and platelet packs by drone, it has been announced.
The National Health Service reported a successful trial of the technology, transporting packs of blood 42 miles by air-born drones.
The significance of this trial is that the distance meant drones were travelling out of the line of sight of any operators.
In the trial, drone transportation was compared with road transport. Ten packs travelled by air and ten identical packs by road between two NHS sites in Northumberland.
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) scientists then analysed the blood to check for any impact on quality and longevity, testing factors such as potassium concentration and haemolysis percentage. They reported that...
4 days ago
