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New Delhi: For the first time, blood bag delivery by drones has now become possible in the country. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) conducted a trial run of blood bag delivery by drones under its iDrone initiative. The inaugural flight carried 10 units of whole blood samples from The Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) and Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC), news agency ANI reported.
The sortie was in the visual line of sight conducted at Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (JIIT), Noida. Professor Pammi Gauba from the JIIT called the project 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.
iDrone was first used during the COVID pandemic by the ICMR for distributing vaccines to unreachable areas. Speaking to the news agency ANI, ICMR’s Director General Dr Rajeev Bahl said, “Today, we are transporting blood & blood-related products, which are supposed to be kept at a low temperature.”
Dr Bahl said that following the experiment, the ICMR found that not only it could 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,” he added.
Earlier, the ICMR used drones for delivering medical supplies, and vaccines in remote areas of Manipur and Nagaland. Dr Nivedita Gupta from the ICMR said “Challenges in timely delivery of blood and blood products especially in the remote areas and congested metropolitan cities of India were identified. The drone-based delivery of blood may reduce the time for last-mile deliveries within the district.”
Another scientist from the ICMR Dr Sumit Kumar, meanwhile, highlighted that assessing the quality and integrity of fragile bodily fluids such as blood and the impact of drone’s movement is a crucial aspect which requires proper monitoring and validation.
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