With a partnership between NCDOT and WakeMed, along with help from Matternet, medical package deliveries will soon be able to be made at WakeMed locations.
"We're looking a way we can deliver care," said WakeMed medical director Dr. Stuart Ginn. "Drone technology...has really changed that equation," Ginn said.
ALL NEW: Pretty soon this drone will be able to deliver medical items and blood samples through a partnership with NCDOT and WakeMed. #ABC11 pic.twitter.com/l2pz3227wj
— DeJuan Hoggard (@DeJuanABC11) August 29, 2018
Under the program, which is part of the FAA's Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Pilot Program, drones will have the opportunity to create efficiency in how the hospital handles medical deliveries. "This will allow immediate delivery of goods that matter," said Matternet founder and CEO Andreas Raptopoulos.
According to Raptopoulos, deliveries now can take up to two hours by the current method. The new drone program will drastically cut delivery time. "With a system like this, you can have a 9-minute delivery every time. So it can be very transformative," Raptopoulos mentioned.
And we have lift off! pic.twitter.com/MzoIStWu5H
— DeJuan Hoggard (@DeJuanABC11) August 29, 2018
Overseas, Matternet has already successfully completed more than 1,800 drone flights for healthcare systems in Switzerland.
"Because of health care costs so high, (the new drone program) should make costs go down," said NCDOT chief deputy secretary David Howard. "I wonder if the Wright Brothers knew this is where (aviation) was going."