An Initial Investigation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Real-Time Organ Status Measurement for Transporting Human Organs

Abstract

Organ transportation has yet to be substantially innovated. If organs could be moved by drone, instead of ill-timed commercial aircraft or expensive charter flights, lifesaving organs could be transplanted more quickly. A modified, six-rotor UAS was used to model situations relevant to organ transportation. To monitor the organ, we developed novel technologies that provided the real-time organ status using a wireless biosensor combined with an organ global positioning system. Fourteen drone organ missions were performed. Temperatures remained stable and low (2.5 °C). Pressure changes (0.37–0.86 kPa) correlated with increased altitude. Drone travel was associated with less vibration (<0.5 G) than was observed with fixed-wing flight (>2.0 G). Peak velocity was 67.6 km/h (42 m/h). Biopsies of the kidney taken prior to and after organ shipment revealed no damage resulting from drone travel. The longest flight was 3.0 miles, modeling an organ flight between two inner city hospitals. Organ transportation may be an ideal use-case for drones. With the development of faster, larger drones, long-distance drone organ shipment may result in substantially reduced cold ischemia times, subsequently improved organ quality, and thousands of lives saved.

Isolated pancreas transplantation: Is rank list position related to outcomes of imported grafts?

“…Most importantly, these data suggest that an accurate assessment of gland quality, along with structured and careful postoperative management, leads to good overall outcomes with consistent long‐term patient survival. Graft survival data are more challenging to compare among centers given different measurement methods relative to success of the pancreas allograft, but this study is largely in agreement with other published data and a consistent graft failure definition was applied in all cases …”

“…As such, there are real limitations to broad sharing in some cases. In the future, it is possible that more efficient and safe alternative modes of transportation, such as transportation via drone, will minimize CIT and lead to improved organ outcomes . With recent and anticipated changes in organ allocation in the United States resulting in broader distribution, there is a more pressing need for innovative organ transport mechanisms …”

Substance Use Disorders and COVID-19: Multi-Faceted Problems Which Require Multi-Pronged Solutions

“…Finally, when the technology around unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) improves and becomes cost-effective and ethical and legal issues are addressed, harm reduction kits, and medications could be delivered to individuals with SUD ( 114 – 116 ). Drones can deliver medications (e.g., naloxone) and save lives especially in highly congested cities and rural areas.…”

Modeling quarantine during epidemics and mass-testing using drones

“…Recent advances in the drone (unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAV) technology allow one to perform unmanned delivery-to-the-door of various goods [19]. Drones succeed with blood transportation [20][21][22][23][24] (and even organ transportation is being explored [25]), implying that transporting by drones the less sensitive [12] COVID-19 test samples (e.g, upper respiratory specimens in nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab or lower respiratory specimens like sputum) may also be technically feasible [26] (related studies went so far as to explore testing for avian influenza A (H7N9) virus directly on the drone [27]). This opens the potential to use drones for mass-testing the population for COVID-19, most importantly-including asymptomatic people: it has been reported that symptomless people can be infectious as well [1][2][3]5] (in fact, since symptomatic people were advised to isolate very early, it may be the case that the pandemic occurred mostly due to asymptomatic transmission [4]).…”