AI Article Synopsis
- Rwanda introduced drone delivery for blood products to improve accessibility in remote health facilities, addressing challenges in supply chains and fluctuating demand.
- Between 2017 and 2019, drone deliveries significantly reduced average delivery times by 79 to 98 minutes compared to road transport, with 43% of deliveries categorized as emergencies.
- The implementation also led to a 67% reduction in blood unit expirations over a year, indicating a notable improvement in efficiency and waste management in healthcare.
Article Abstract
Background: The accessibility of blood and blood products remains challenging in many countries because of the complex supply chain of short lifetime products, timely access, and demand fluctuation at the hospital level. In an effort to improve availability and delivery times, Rwanda launched the use of drones to deliver blood products to remote health facilities. We evaluated the effect of this intervention on blood product delivery times and wastage.
Methods: We studied data from 20 health facilities between Jan 1, 2015, and Dec 31, 2019, in Rwanda. First, we did a cross-sectional comparison of data on emergency delivery times from the drone operator collected between March 17, 2017, and Dec 31, 2019, with two sources of estimated driving times (Regional Centre for Blood Transfusion estimates and Google Maps). Second, we used interrupted time series analysis and monthly administrative data to assess changes in blood product expirations after the commencement of drone deliveries.
Findings: Between March 17, 2017, and Dec 31, 2019, 12 733 blood product orders were delivered by drones. 5517 (43%) of 12 733 were emergency orders. The mean drone delivery time was 49·6 min (95% CI 49·1 to 50·2), which was 79 min faster than existing road delivery methods based on estimated driving times (p<0·0001) and 98 min faster based on Google Maps estimates (p<0·0001). The decrease in mean delivery time ranged from 3 min to 211 min depending on the distance to the facility and road quality. We also found a decrease of 7·1 blood unit expirations per month after the start of drone delivery (95% CI -11·8 to -2·4), which translated to a 67% reduction at 12 months.
Interpretation: We found that drone delivery led to faster delivery times and less blood component wastage in health facilities. Future studies should investigate if these improvements are cost-effective, and whether drone delivery might be effective for other pharmaceutical and health supplies that cannot be easily stored at remote facilities.
Funding: Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00048-1 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Mitochondria Express Functional Signaling Ligand-Binding Receptors that Regulate their Biological Responses - the Novel Role of Mitochondria as Stress-Response Sentinels.
Stem Cell Rev Rep
January 2025
Department of Regenerative Medicine, Warsaw Medical University, Warsaw, Poland.
Evidence accumulated mitochondria, as the "powerplants of the cell," express several functional receptors for external ligands that modify their function and regulate cell biology. This review sheds new light on the role of these organelles in sensing external stimuli to facilitate energy production for cellular needs. This is possible because mitochondria express some receptors on their membranes that are responsible for their autonomous responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPharmacovigilance analysis of drug-induced hypofibrinogenemia using the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System.
Int J Clin Pharm
January 2025
Department of Pharmacy, Medical Supplies Center of Chinese, PLA General Hospital, 28 Fu Xing Road, Beijing, 100853, China.
Background: Drug-induced hypofibrinogenemia has received increasing scrutiny; however, the specific drugs involved remain poorly characterized. Hypofibrinogenemia can have significant clinical implications, including increased bleeding risks.
Aim: This study aimed to utilize the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) to identify and analyze drugs frequently implicated in drug-induced hypofibrinogenemia.
Cocatalysis of catalytic hairpin assembly and ternary heterojunction BiS@MoS@BiMoO promotes ultra-sensitive electrochemical of detection MiRNA-21.
Mikrochim Acta
January 2025
USST-UH International Joint Laboratory for Tumor Diagnosis and Energy Treatment, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, China.
Ternary heterojunction BiS/MoS/BiMoO was designed as a signal probe to develop a dual signal amplification strategy empowered electrochemical biosensor for sensitive miRNA-21 detection by combining with catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA). The combination of the BiS/MoS/BiMoO heterojunction as a tracer indication probe and the CHA amplification strategy not only took fully use of the highly dense nanowire interwoven structure and superior active region of the probe, but also endowed the ability to improve the molecular hybridization efficiency by collision, which significantly avoided the cumbersome chain design and greatly simplified the step-by-step construction of the electrode surface. Hairpin H1 was first added dropwise to the gold nanoparticle-decorated electrode surface, and then opened by the introduced miRNA-21 to initiate the specific hybridization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTat_BioV: tattoo ink exposure and biokinetics of selected tracers in a short-term clinical study of 24 subjects.
Arch Toxicol
January 2025
Department of Chemical and Product Safety, German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Berlin, Germany.
About one-fifth of people in industrialised countries are tattooed, potentially putting them at risk of exposure to possible carcinogenic or otherwise harmful substances. This study aims to determine the exposure to soluble tattoo ink ingredients and their excretion within 24 h after tattooing. In this clinical study, 24 subjects were tattooed with black or red tattoo ink to which the 3 tracer substances, potassium iodide, 4-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) and 2-phenoxyethanol (PEtOH), had been added to mimic known substances found in tattoo inks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClassification of Post-Delousing Mortality in Farmed Atlantic Salmon: A Case Study of Standardised Causal Classification at Fish-Level.
J Fish Dis
January 2025
Department of Production Animal Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway.
The study investigated cause-specific, fish-level mortality of farmed Atlantic salmon following mechanical delousing. We visited three populations at two marine sites belonging to one company at four different time points, from 1 day before to 13 days after the mechanical delousing. A total of 453 dead fish were collected and necropsied during the four visits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!