Optimal allocation of defibrillator drones in mountainous regions

Abstract

Responding to emergencies in Alpine terrain is quite challenging as air ambulances and mountain rescue services are often confronted with logistics challenges and adverse weather conditions that extend the response times required to provide life-saving support. Among other medical emergencies, sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is the most time-sensitive event that requires the quick provision of medical treatment including cardiopulmonary resuscitation and electric shocks by automated external defibrillators (AED). An emerging technology called unmanned aerial vehicles (or drones) is regarded to support mountain rescuers in overcoming the time criticality of these emergencies by reducing the time span between SCA and early defibrillation. A drone that is equipped with a portable AED can fly from a base station to the patient's site where a bystander receives it and starts treatment. This paper considers such a response system and proposes an integer linear program to determine the optimal allocation of drone base stations in a given geographical region. In detail, the developed model follows the objectives to minimize the number of used drones and to minimize the average travel times of defibrillator drones responding to SCA patients. In an example of application, under consideration of historical helicopter response times, the authors test the developed model and demonstrate the capability of drones to speed up the delivery of AEDs to SCA patients. Results indicate that time spans between SCA and early defibrillation can be reduced by the optimal allocation of drone base stations in a given geographical region, thus increasing the survival rate of SCA patients.

A Quickly Deployed and UAS-Based Logistics Network for Delivery of Critical Medical Goods during Healthcare System Stress Periods: A Real Use Case in Valencia (Spain)

“…A series of test flights was performed in the three defined scenarios, during October and November 2020. Results from flights in scenario A will only be briefly commented in this paper, as these were preliminary tests and operations in rural areas and uncontrolled airspace have been already assessed by several other authors [11,14]. These flights were performed on days 19 and 31 October 2020.…”

“…A methodical review of the current applications of drones in healthcare and healthrelated services shows that many of the published works discuss the technical theory behind network implementation [8] or system design for healthcare drone applications [9,10], proving that it is a market under development. Some of the currents research lines in medical drone delivery applications are focused on the transport of blood [11], organs [12], vaccines [13], AEDs [14][15][16], and medical samples [17][18][19].…”

Containing the COVID-19 pandemic with drones - Feasibility of a drone enabled back-up transport system

“…Through the analysis of other scientific sources ( Rabta et al, 2018 ; Wankmüller et al, 2020 ) and the incorporation of drone expert information, we conceptualized the DET for the distribution process of COVID-19 tests. This approach revolves around the self-sampling of swaps for later analysis in a laboratory – here called self-test kits – and is not to be confused with point-of-care tests, where the results of the test are available on the ground.…”

“…Especially in regions, where the coverage of emergency management services is rather low (e.g. mountainous areas), drones make the timely delivery of AEDs possible ( Wankmüller et al, 2020 ).…”

Selecting E-Mobility Transport Solutions for Mountain Rescue Operations

“…The implementation of e-mobility transport solutions may be a viable option to achieve required performance gains. In the case of MR services, electric drones are a sound alternative for the emergency transport of medical equipment [16,17], and several other approaches, such as e-bikes and e-stretchers, also exist. E-bikes (i.e., bicycles with an additional electric propulsion) can be used for performing reconnaissance, locating patients, or getting faster access to emergency sites.…”