The concept of transporting medical products by drone is gaining a lot of interest amongst the medical and logistics communities. Such innovation has generated several questions, a key one being the potential effects of flight on the stability of medical products. The aims of this study were to quantify the vibration present within drone flight, study its effect on the quality of the medical insulin through live flight trials, and compare the effects of vibration from drone flight with traditional road transport. Three trials took place in which insulin ampoules and mock blood stocks were transported to site and flown using industry standard packaging by a fixed-wing or a multi-copter drone. Triaxial vibration measurements were acquired, both in-flight and during road transit, from which overall levels and frequency spectra were derived. British Pharmacopeia quality tests were undertaken in which the UV spectra of the flown insulin samples were compared to controls of known turbidity. In-flight vibration levels in both the drone types exceeded road induced levels by up to a factor of three, and predominant vibration occurred at significantly higher frequencies. Flown samples gave clear insulin solutions that met the British Pharmacopoeia specification, and no aggregation of insulin was detected.

Commercial operations of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) are expanding, with medical logistics using UAVs as part of health service supply chains being targeted. The ability to transport cargos that include items classified as Dangerous Goods (DG) is a significant factor in enabling UAV logistics to assist medical supply chains, but DG regulations for air transport have developed from the perspective of crewed aircraft and not UAVs. This paper provides an important audit of the current DG regulations, best practice in their application and the development of much-needed new governance that will be required to fully exploit UAVs for the safe transport of DG in medical logistics. Findings from the audit provide a summary of the circumstances and potential challenges resulting from the application of DG regulations as they stand to UAV operations, particularly for medical logistics, and convenient guidance on the practical implications of DG regulations for UAV operators. The main conclusion is that this is an under-researched domain, not yet given full consideration in a holistic way by regulators, governments, industry bodies, practitioners or academia.

Healthcare accounts for approximately 5% of emissions in developed nations, and the public healthcare provider in the United Kingdom (UK), the National Health Service (NHS), has set a target to reach net-zero emissions by 2040 without detriment to its quality of patient care. With Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs; a.k.a. drones, UAS, or RPAS) starting to be used in healthcare systems outside the UK, there is interest in how they could be integrated into NHS operations to transport diagnostic specimens. Reflecting on a business-as-usual analysis of current NHS diagnostic specimen logistics across the Solent region (southern UK), this paper critically evaluates the practical reality of integrating UAV deliveries of this commodity, identifying the benefits and challenges that must be addressed to realise commercial services, including dangerous goods legislation, cargo stability, routing, and weather. In the analysis, 14 out of 79 surgeries could be realistically served by a 5m wingspan vertical take-off/landing (VTOL) UAV: seven directly, and seven via ground-based transfers. The results suggested that an average of 1,628 samples could be served by UAV each week, resulting in 42 flights/week with 10 taxi services to cover periods where weather limited flying. This equated to an approximate total service cost of £2,964/week if regulations develop to relax UAV personnel constraints. The introduction of UAVs reduced the marginal external costs (greenhouse gas emissions, congestion, and air pollution) by £196 per week and cut travel times to UAV served sites by 72% (weather permitting). Tailpipe emissions (excl. taxis), vehicle-kilometres travelled, and van costs were reduced by 20%, 20%, and 23% (respectively), but the overall system cost increased by 56%. Whilst this increase is likely to make the introduction of UAV services financially challenging, the benefits in terms of emissions and journey time savings may offset some of the additional cost and warrant further investigation.

The timely distribution of medicines to patients is an essential part of the patient care plan, and maximising efficiency in the logistics systems behind these movements is vital to minimise cost. Before drones can be used for moving medical cargo, medical regulatory authorities require assurance that the transported products will not be adversely affected by in-flight conditions unique to each drone. This study set out to (i) quantify the vibration profile by phases of flight, (ii) determine to what extent there were significant differences in the observed vibration between the phases, and (iii) assess the quality of flown monoclonal antibody (mAb) infusions used in the treatment of cancer. Vibrations emanating from the drone and transmitted through standard medical packaging were monitored with the storage specifications for mean kinematic temperature (2–8 °C) being met. Vibration levels were recorded between 1.5 and 3 g, with the dominant octave band being 250 Hz. After 60 flights, the quality attributes of flown infusions regarding size integrity were found to be no different from those of the control infusions. For example, the particle size had a variation of less than 1 nm; one peak for Trastuzumab was 14.6 ± 0.07 nm, and Rituximab was 13.3 ± 0.90 nm. The aggregation (%) and fragmentation (%) remained at 0.18 ± 0.01% and 0.11 ± 0.02% for Trastuzumab, 0.11 ± 0.01% and 2.82 ± 0.15% for Rituximab. The results indicated that in the case of mAbs, the quality assurance specifications were met and that drone vibration did not adversely affect the quality of drone-flown medicines.