Last week, the Remote Area Clinic, a pop-up health clinic in rural Wise County, Va., received medicine deliveries from the first government-approved drone delivery in the country, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The clinic is an annual event, opening for one weekend and serving an average of 3,000 patients. The pharmacy supplying medications for the clinic is approximately 35 miles away, but it takes nearly 90 minutes to drive because of winding roads, according to the report.
As a pop-up clinic, providers are somewhat limited in what medications they can prescribe since the clinic is stocked before it opens. With the drone, some patients were able to receive medications the same day instead of having to wait several days, Teresa Gardner, director of the pop-up clinic, told WSJ.
The drones typically can only fly 20 miles carrying 5.5 pounds before their batteries die. Since the pharmacy is 35 miles away, an aircraft carried the medication to an airport in Wise County approximately one mile away from the pop-up clinic. From there, the drones were sent to the clinic, a trip that took approximately three minutes, according to the report.
Though the medication deliveries can be deemed successful, drones still face a number of barriers before potentially becoming a widespread technology as is envisioned by companies including Amazon and Google, which are developing drones for delivery services.
In addition to the relatively short distances most commercial drones are able to fly, the Federal Aviation Administration has not approved delivery drone operations. (It gave special permission for the pop-up clinic demonstration, according to WSJ.) Furthermore, proposed rules regarding drone delivery prohibit flight paths over people and cities and require the drone's operator to keep the drone in sight. Additionally, the proposed rules would not permit drones to carry objects, according to the report.
Culturally, drones face another hurdle: public perception. This is something government agencies are trying to overcome and remove the stigma of drones as weapons systems or "playthings."
Frank Jones, deputy director of NASA Langley's Research Services Directorate, told WSJ, "What we're trying to do is not only develop the technology, but [develop] the public's trust in the technology."
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