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Drone delivery of lab samples: from progress at WakeMed to interest elsewhere

February 2020—After nearly a year of a drone buzzing through the air to deliver specimens from the Raleigh Medical Park surgery center to the laboratory at the flagship Raleigh campus of WakeMed Health and Hospitals a quarter-mile away, WakeMed is looking to expand its drone program.

WakeMed launched its first drone in March 2019, making it the first U.S. medical center to undertake a revenue-generating drone flight. Since then, drones have been flying between the two facilities eight times a day during normal business hours, weather permitting, through a program driven largely by a surgeon at the hospital who was previously a commercial airline pilot.

All suitable specimens, which are primarily blood and urine samples but may also include throat cultures and other specimens, are transported between the surgery center and hospital lab via drone, says Michael Weinstein, MD, PhD, director of WakeMed Pathology Laboratories. “As part of being safe, we don’t take anything that is an irreplaceable specimen, so a tube of blood or a tube of urine yes, but a biopsy or cerebrospinal fluid, those are things we would not put in there,” he explains.

The success of the program at WakeMed that UPS’ drone airline, UPS Flight Forward, operates with the drone delivery technology provider Matternet, under oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration and North Carolina Department of Transportation, has prompted the hospital to consider expanding the undertaking, says Dr. Weinstein.

The primary concern has been that the program maintain the integrity of the specimens and safety requirements, stresses Dr. Weinstein, who oversaw the laboratory requirements for the drone program. WakeMed ran numerous test flights ahead of its official drone launch to monitor temperatures and ensure that specimens would not get too shaken up during flight. During inclement weather, WakeMed transports the specimens via a courier service running between the surgery center and laboratory.

The quarter-mile route the drone flies was selected because UPS adheres to an FAA line-of-sight rule that requires a drone pilot to be able to see the drone during the entire flight, from liftoff to landing. However, UPS Flight Forward is working to secure FAA Standard Part 135 certification for drone deliveries beyond the line of sight and to be able to scale operations using multiple drones.

“Part 135 FAA certification gives us the ability to grow,” says Mark Taylor, UPS’ director of global health care strategy. The new certification could also allow UPS Flight Forward to conduct night flights and transport cargo exceeding 55 pounds.

The drone used by WakeMed is a Matternet M2 quadcopter, which can carry loads of approximately five pounds over a distance of about 12.5 miles. It lands on a landing platform about four square feet in size. “The drone is really a beautiful, wonderful thing,” says Dr. Weinstein. “It flies at about 400 feet and comes over the platform, hovers for a few seconds to get its bearings, and gently lowers down onto the platform.”

Matternet and UPS provide trained personnel to fly the drones, and the companies work with regulators to obtain the required approvals for flights. “All of these flight paths are pre-approved,” Taylor explains. “This goes back to how important safety is around all of this. They are predetermined and filed with the FAA. There is an operator/pilot on either end making sure that everything happens appropriately.”

Since WakeMed kicked off its program, interest in using drones for laboratory and other medical deliveries has increased. In October, UPS announced that it is collaborating with University of Utah Health on a drone program that is expected to improve lab turnaround times. A separate agreement between UPS and Kaiser Permanente, also announced in October, will involve drone projects at multiple health systems within the Kaiser Permanente network that too are expected to focus on improving lab turnaround times.

Talyor expects drone deliveries to have the most significant impact in congested areas, where snarled traffic can hinder the timeliness of hospital courier deliveries. The reduction in fuel costs from the drones, which are powered by a rechargeable lithium ion battery, could potentially lead to cost savings as well, according to a statement from UPS.

“For labs, the biggest thing—the key performance indicator—is turnaround time,” says Shannon DeMar, senior manager of specimen logistics in UPS’ global product innovation group. “So we put a lot of emphasis on all the technology enhancements that we bring to the table. Of course, safety is very important because drones are so new, but from there it’s a matter of whether the project benefits can be achieved.”