Maryland Test Confirms Drones Can Safely Deliver Human Organs

A kidney was flown thousands of meters by a drone without incurring any damage. Reader Wave723 shares a report: When a patient who needs an organ transplantation is finally matched with a donor, every second matters. A longer wait between when an organ is removed from a donor and when it is placed into a recipient is associated with poorer organ function following transplantation. To maximize the chances of success, organs must be shipped from A to B as quickly and safely as possible -- and a recent test run suggests that drones are up to the task. [...] Last March, they (Dr. Joseph Scalea of the University of Maryland Medical Center and his team) received news that a kidney -- which was not healthy enough to be used in a transplantation -- was available for research. Over the course of roughly 24 hours, the kidney was shipped more than 1,600 kilometers (km) to Baltimore and the drone was set up for its first delivery mission. The results were published in the IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine on 6 November.

In total, the little bean-shaped organ was airborne for a little more than an hour over the course of 14 flight missions. For the farthest mission, the kidney flew 2,415 meters, a distance similar to the length of potential shipment routes for donor organs between inner city hospitals. The researchers found that the temperature of the kidney remained stable, at a cool 2.5 degrees Celsius, throughout the test runs. Air pressure corresponded with altitude, and the drone-borne organ achieved a maximum speed of 67.6 km/h. In an interesting twist, the kidney was subjected to slightly fewer vibrations when transported in the drone compared to a control delivery mission in a fixed wing plane (a dual engine turboprop King Air). Biopsies of the kidney before and after drone transportation revealed no damage from the journey, suggesting that the experiment -- which the research team believes is the first ever use of a drone for organ delivery -- was a success.

Not impressed

[olsmeister]

Let me know when they can harvest them first.

Re:Not impressed

[Anonymous Coward]

Harvesting them is actually trivial, the real challenge is identifying compatible donors from the air... well that and getting the would be donors to stay still during the harvesting process...

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

that's why 23andme and similars exist

Re:

[zlives]

yup them being the beans Flavor Flav prefers

Re:

[Type44Q]

Let me know when they can harvest them first.

"NO CARRIER?"

Re:

[nospam007]

"Let me know when they can harvest them first."

But this is so cool! The thermos was even still cold after the 2 minute flight(2.5 km at almost 68 km/h)
  Awesome.

Re:

[sycodon]

Needs to ban whiny ACs too.

Every second matters AND 1600 km

[Reaper9889]

Why was there 1600 km between the two if every second matters? A flight ticket back and forth does not sound that expensive. Is this one of the US stories about the price of hospitals or something?

Re:

[techno-vampire]

For those of us who are still more comfortable with miles, that's slightly over 994.19 miles. You can't often find a donor organ that's close to where it's needed, so you generally have to send them cross country by plane. Having the test start that far from the destination simply made for more realistic conditions.

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[helpfulcorn]

Man, miles is so much shorter than kilometres. Why use kilometres if miles is so much closer?

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[azadrozny]

This make a lot of sense. With a drone I can get a direct flight to any hospital in the country. No need to book or charter the flight, and no need to use an airport.

Now What They Need...

[rally2xs]

Is a scramjet drone flying at mach 17... get that perishable around the world in short order.

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[zlives]

i hear there is a glut of kidneys in china for some odd reason.

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[someoneOtherThanMe]

Indeed, almost 3 billion of them.

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[toonces33]

Sounds like a job for Elon Musk. Kidney-sized hyperloop tunnels.

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[mark_reh]

"200 years ago people believed speeds in excess of 20 miles could not be survived."

Uh, didn't people ride horses back then?

Raise your hand if you thought it said orgasms

[bistromath007]

(ãf_ãf)ãfZ

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[ShanghaiBill]

What I want to know is why is there 2.4 km distance that must be traversed. Is the idea to transfer between hospitals in a city?

The summary specifically says this is a typical distance for transferring between hospitals.

Does it take too long to get a helicopter pilot into the air?

So your point is that they shouldn't waste money on a $500 drone, when a mere $1.5M helicopter can do it for only $1000 an hour?

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[rtb61]

Let me see, someone's life is on the line at the other end, say it is your life. Whilst a $500 drobe could probably do it, would you be willing to wait at the other end for the whoops ie taken out by a stray bird (drone falls from the sky), a large piece of wind blown plastic, radio transmission interference or the drone or remote suffers any kind of glitch and whoops you die. It is not whether or not the drone can do it, that is a given, obviously it can, how reliably can it do it, that is the question and

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[ShanghaiBill]

I own a drone (DJI Mavic). I worked with helicopters when I was in the military. They have WAY more down time than drones.

So your argument is completely backwards. If you need reliable deliveries, go with the drone.

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[Headw1nd]

I think what they are looking at here is not long term delivery, but what is the quickest point-to-point in an urban setting. Having a helicopter ready to go airborne is not cheap, whereas a drone can literally be left in a shed until it's needed. Also helicopters will ostensibly have tighter regulations on when and where they can fly since they do a lot more damage in a crash than a drone. Take the example of a helicopter grounded in bad weather- it can't fly because if it wrecks in can cause considerable

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[zlives]

i wonder what the market for drone harvesting look like...

But can they ..

[MpVpRb]

de-liver a liver?

Re:But can they ..

[OzPeter]

de-liver a liver?

You've gotta be kidney me

Re:But can they ..

[sinij]

Eye see what you are doing here.

Re:But can they ..

[AdaStarks]

I could use an ex-spleen-ation

Re:But can they ..

[es330td]

I don't think I can stomach any more of this.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Oh come on, have a heart.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Ha ha, very humerus.

This is terribly written and confusing.

[sunking2]

I think what they are saying that the kidney was flow via airplane 1600km to Baltimore as would normally be done. Once in Baltimore they started doing the drone tests. Obviously you aren't going to do a 1600km pony express of drones.

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[zlives]

they compared vibrations for 2.4 KM of taxiing.

Oh, here we go...

[ZoomieDood]

Thug 1 (T1): Opening medi-auction site now....
Thug 2 (T2): Shhh.. shhh... look lady, we're just gonna take your kidney, okay?
Victim (V): Who let you in? Why are you doing this?

T2 to T1: Hurry up... what's the going rate for a kidney?
T1: top big is.... $5800, with finders bonus... $12,450
T2: Woohoo! Take the sale, arrange for pickup - send our coordinates now.

Victim starts screaming as Thug 2 approaches her with a knife.
Thug 2 knocks her out, and proceeds to cut out her kidney.

A minute later, a tapping i

Important to test, but seriously...

[Livius]

I think it's great that drones have finally found a positive role in society after all the undeserved hype.

At the same time, while I know you have to test or you don't actually know for sure, we already knew they could carry very small cargo over short distances.

Already been done... in Africa

[mspohr]

https://www.theverge.com/2016/... [theverge.com]

Zipline International
Rwanda delivers blood and medication to remote clinics by drone. Fast, safe.

If you steer the drone well,

[mark_reh]

its blades can chop a kidney out of someone on the street and then deliver it to the hospital where it can be installed.

I wonder if they could get human pineal extract that way...