Drone Quickly Delivers Humanitarian Aid and Life – Saving Vaccines

Orange County, CA - June 27th, 2018 -  Devastating events take place where a patient is in need of life-saving medical products such as medicine, vaccines, or blood.  Urgently obtaining these items, once they are out of stock is very challenging. For example, blood has a short shelf life, there are different storage requirements for each blood type, and it is very difficult to predict the demand for the different blood groups before a patient is in need.

Zipline Inc., a San Francisco based company, designs and manufactures drones that to deliver medications to hospitals and health centers in rural areas. The drones are able to deliver a range of vaccines, medicines, and blood to patients who require life-saving medical products. The company’s long-term mission is to acquire instant delivery of medical products around the world, at a low cost.

In early 2016, the company launched the world’s first automated delivery system that operates at national scale, in Rwanda. Later that year, the company signed a contract with the Government of Rwanda to establish a distribution center with fifteen drones that deliver blood, plasma, and platelets to twenty-one hospitals across the western half of the country. Currently, the company delivers 20% of Rwanda’s blood supply and is in the process of opening an additional distribution center in Rwanda. Opening the second center would help bring the entire country within range of this life-saving service.

Each year Rwanda collects about 60,000-80,000 units of blood. By using this technology, Rwanda is able to keep more blood centralized and in return, provide it to patients at any hospital or health center with an average of 20-30 minutes. In the event of a medical emergency, a doctor can text them exactly what blood type or vaccine they need. Zipline instantly pulls the blood from their stock, scans the item in the system, packs it in a Zip, and then it is placed on a launcher.

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Zipline’s latest generation drone was released in April of 2018. The autonomous aircraft flies faster, farther, and can obtain more cargo than previous generations. The advancements of the new model will increase the number of daily delivery flights that each Zipline distribution center can make from 50 to 500, decrease the amount of time between Zipline’s receipt of an order and launch of a fulfilment flight from 10 minutes to 1, and expand the radius of each distribution center to serve populations of up to 10 million people.

“Our first generation aircraft and logistics system allowed us to create the first and only drone delivery service in the world, which is helping to save lives in Rwanda every day. We’ve taken everything Zipline has learned making thousands of life-critical deliveries and flying hundreds of thousands of kilometers and redesigned our entire system and operation from top to bottom. The new aircraft and distribution center system we’re unveiling today will help Zipline scale to meet the needs of countries around the world—including the United States.” said Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo.

Doctors are able to stock less blood at hospitals because they are able to have access to what they require almost instantly. Blood and medical supply shortages affect rural hospitals in the United States just as much as they do in Rwanda. “Billions of people on earth lack access to critical medicine. In East Africa, Zipline’s drones bring people the medicine they need, when they need it in a way that reduces waste, cost and inventory while increasing access and saving lives. We’ve been hard at work to improve our technology and are ready to help save lives in America and around the world” stated Rinaudo.

Zipline Inc. is now working with the United States Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). They recently announced a UAS Integration Pilot Program (UASIPP) to launch its medical drone delivery in parts of the U.S. this year. The FAA created the UASIPP as an opportunity for local, state, and tribal governments to partner with the private sector to accelerate the development of safe commercial drone revolution in the United States.

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About Ampronix

Ampronix is a renowned authorized master distributor of the medical industry's top brands as well as a world-class manufacturer of innovative technology. Since 1982, Ampronix has been dedicated to meeting the growing needs of the medical community with its extensive product knowledge, outstanding service, and state-of-the-art repair facility. Ampronix prides itself on its ability to offer tailored, one-stop solutions at a faster and more cost-effective rate than other manufacturers. Ampronix is an ISO & ANSI/ESD certified facility. To learn more go here.

Drone Quickly Delivers Humanitarian Aid and Life – Saving Vaccines Orange County, CA – June 27th, 2018 –  Devastating events take place where a patient is in need of life-saving medical products such as medicine, vaccines, or blood.  Urgently obtaining these items, once they are out of stock is very challenging. For example, blood has a short […]