For the first time in India, blood bags have been delivered by drones. The inaugural flight in a validation study carried 10 units of whole blood samples from The Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) and Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC). This drone sortie was in the visual line of sight conducted at Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (JIIT), Noida.

Sharing visuals of the historic delivery, ANI tweeted, “In a first in India, validation of blood bags delivered by drones compared to the conventional method of transportation was done today.”

Dr Rajiv Bahl, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research, said, “This ‘i-DRONE’ was first used during covid19 pandemic by ICMR for distributing vaccines to unreachable areas. Today, we are transporting blood & blood-related products, which are supposed to be kept at a low temperature. After the experiment, we found that not only can we maintain the temperature, but there was also no damage to the products transported. We sent another sample through an ambulance & if there are no differences in the samples sent using the two modes, then this drone will be used all over India,” reported ANI.

Prof Pammi Gauba, Dean, A&R and Head, Department of Biotechnology, JIIT, stated, “This is a pathbreaking validation study involving the collaborative efforts of ICMR, Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC), New Delhi, Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS), Greater Noida and Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (JIIT), Noida”.

However, this is not the first time that a drone was deployed for medical purposes in the country. According to Hindustan times, in the year 2022, Skye Air Mobility counducted the first trial in Gurugram, where a drone collected samples from a private hospital and took them to SRL Labs.

The ICMR has previously conducted successful delivery of medical supplies, vaccines, and medicines in remote areas of Manipur and Nagaland.

With inputs from agencies

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