Raphael Thys
Operators have used drones to test the delivery of medical supplies
Drones have been touted as a game-changer for India's medical industry, and for what it could do to make healthcare accessible to remote regions. Some operators have run successful test flights ever since India liberalised drone rules last year. The BBC's Andrew Clarance reports on what the future looks like.
Earlier this month, a drone carrying blood samples took off from Meerut, a city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, and flew around 72km (44 miles) to Noida, a suburb of the India capital Delhi.
It took a little over an hour to reach, making a scheduled stop for a battery swap. By road, the journey would have taken more than two hours.
This trail run by a diagnostics lab using an unmanned aerial system is the first of many trials being held by drone manufacturers across the country who are testing deliveries for medical supplies, pathology samples and even blood units.
Skye Air Mobility, a drone logistics company, who built and flew the drone to Noida, say they have undertaken more than a 1,000 flights and delivered more than 3,500kg of mixed payload - ranging from e-commerce deliveries to blood samples - since November.
"Based on data we have gathered from the flights, we have significantly reduced the time it takes when using conventional means, by around 48%," Ankit Kumar, the CEO of Skye Air Mobility said.
The drone company also flew a trial in Gurgaon, a Delhi suburb, carrying a similar payload for one of India's biggest diagnostic companies, SRL Diagnostics. Samples were first collected by a lab specialist and then packed into a temperature-controlled carrier attached to the drone. It was then flown from a private hospital to a lab centre, where it was received by a lab specialist.
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All in all, it took about a third of the time it would have taken by road.
"This process", says Anand K, the CEO of SRL Diagnostics, "will help maximise sample processing abilities leading to an efficient lab operation, while benefiting patients who want faster delivery of vital results."
In India, drones have been used to handle disaster relief and rescue operations. Uttar Pradesh has used them to monitor the Kumbh Mela, billed as the largest religious gathering on earth. They've also been used to.