Remote Area Medical looks to delivery by drone
US-based free healthcare provider Remote Area Medical (RAM) is hoping to use drones to deliver medical supplies to isolated communities in Guyana, the Philippines and Haiti.
Image: The Flirtey drone used in the 2015 trial (Flirtey)
US-based free healthcare provider Remote Area Medical (RAM) is hoping to use drones to deliver medical supplies to isolated communities in Guyana, the Philippines and Haiti, a recent Voice of America (VoA) article reveals.
Stan Brock, president and founder of RAM, told VoA that RAM is in talks with officials in Guyana, Haiti and the Philippines on deploying drones alongside its manned aircraft
Brock explained: “I’ve been talking to the Guyana government about the possible use of drones to deliver medicine, like for malaria, to some of these remote villages instead of having to use the airplane or if the weather was bad and the airplane couldn’t go.”
Brock noted that existing regulations mean that currently, civilian drones offer limited range and lifting capacity. However, the organisation is working to overcome these barriers, and in 2015 took part in a trial in which a Flirtey UAV flew 30 miles to deliver a 10-lb (4.5-kg) package of medical supplies to a RAM clinic in the US.
Watch footage of the drone delivery trial below.