Summary Reader Response Draft 3

The article written by Balasubramanian (2022)," Drones May Become 'The Next Big Thing' in Healthcare Delivery", highlights the prospective use of healthcare drones, and that there could be a significant enhancement in healthcare efficiency, especially in rural areas. AEDs have been delivered within 3 minutes and a success rate of 92% and recent developments have been made to advance drone technology and other drone applications. Some drones are also currently being used to deliver AEDs, vaccines, and medicines. Zipline is a prime example in this field of healthcare drones. The webpage "Zipline (drone delivery)"(n.d) from Handwiki, elucidates the technical aspects of the drone. "During delivery, the autonomous drone delivers packages by descending to 20-35 meters above the ground, dropping the healthcare package with a parachute. With a payload of 1.75 kilograms, a cruising speed of 101km/h, and an altitude of 80-120 meters above the ground, the drone is able to make delivery within 45 minutes. Batteries are quickly replaceable and fast turnaround flights are possible, and the fuselage's carbon-fiber frame and outer polystyrene shell enhance its lightweight capabilities".

Healthcare drones have the potential to propel efficiency in healthcare services and significantly increase the accessibility of medicinal treatment in rural areas, though some argue that drones infringe on people's privacy and threaten the safety of people on the ground.

Healthcare efficiency is enhanced through the use of its "supercapacitor-powered electric catapult launcher"(Handwiki)(n.d.). Because of the launcher's contribution to a short take-off distance, drone centres could be positioned in populated areas and operate with limited space, providing wider healthcare coverage and services to more communities. Furthermore, according to Wang, Jun Wu, and Huang(2018), the catapult launcher consists of a battery, charging circuit, supercapacitor, discharge circuit, and a linear motor, allowing the catapult system to work continuously, further increasing the speed at which healthcare drones can be dispatched. This improves the rate at which the drone centre can cope with deliveries and thus, healthcare efficiency is greatly improved.

Accessibility to medical treatments will be greatly improved in rural areas through healthcare drones. An article from World Economic Forum (2022) claimed that 30,000 government-run primary healthcare centres serve a majority of India's 1.4 billion citizens, but 5-10% of the population do not have adequate access to medical supplies due to inaccessible geographic locations and natural disasters. This highlights the importance of healthcare drones and its capabilities to fly over rugged terrain. The healthcare drone's significant advantage over land medical services also provides medical accessibility to rural villages. According to an article written by AeoLogic, healthcare drones could also provide organ transportation, perform emergency surgeries, and deliver live video feeds of high-risk birth procedures. For example, with the use of drone infrared cameras, doctors are able to detect tumours without any harmful procedures or radiation. Thus, villagers would be granted a higher healthcare quality without the need to travel on rough terrain, reinforcing the fact that the accessibility to medical treatments could be enhanced through healthcare drones.

However, the implementation of healthcare drones does not come without downsides. As far as programming goes, there are bound to be risks of collisions with buildings, people, or wildlife, and people are cautious and wary about their privacy being invaded when healthcare drones are flying overhead. Healthcare drone programming-related issues such as bad flight planning or human programming mistakes could result in improper flight path planning and inaccurate data entry, which causes drones to crash into objects like buildings, electrical lines, or trees. The possibility of privacy invasion is supported in reference to a journal by Rao, Gopi, and Maione(n.d), which claims that drones have the capability of entering properties undetected and recording information, and with the increased usage of drones, the opportunities for misuse and illegal activities are more prevalent. The existing stand on the use of cameras on drones is relaxed and is overlooked in deterrence to the invasion of privacy. Therefore, people’s insecurities about the implementation of healthcare drones are justified because drones currently pose a potential threat to the safety of people on the ground and could invade the privacy of many.

In conclusion, the advantages of using healthcare drones for enhancing healthcare efficiency and the accessibility of healthcare treatment have been expounded through the course of this essay. With the current level of drone development, healthcare drones should be implemented slowly in the community to gain the public's trust. Furthermore, with bigger socio-economic support from the government and large hospitals, healthcare drone projects will have heavy financial backing in technological developments which culminates in well-designed and dependable healthcare drones. As such, greater healthcare efficiency can be achieved. 

References

Balasubramanian, S., MD. (2022, January 10). Drones May Become ‘The Next Big Thing’ In Healthcare Delivery. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/saibala/2022/01/09/drones-may-become-the-next-big-thing-in-healthcare-delivery/?sh=1efeceb21e9b

Company: Zipline (drone delivery) - HandWiki. (n.d.). https://handwiki.org/wiki/Company:Zipline_(drone_delivery)

D. (2022, July 30). How Drones Will Transform Healthcare Industry. Aeologic Blog. https://www.aeologic.com/blog/how-drones-will-transform-healthcare-industry/  

 Rao, Gopi, Maione. (2016). The societal impact of commercial drones. Technology in society https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X15300828?casa_token=cx1ZQoMzja0AAAAA:-9lsCLCjlU-Tl4eyLzL5cJ-te70Ov9iWhrXU2v6-nWUK5aPFjRnVxaeRgZSbE4etjnFvnhRstEzP0w 

Wang, Z., Wu, J., & Huang, S. (2018). A hybrid power system for unmanned aerial vehicle electromagnetic launcher. AIP Conference Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5041153