U.K. Trials Drones to Deliver Covid-19 Tests from Hospitals to Labs

(AP) A drone takes off from the roof of a UK hospital, a trial flight for now, but it is hoped that soon its payload will be coronavirus tests heading to a pathology lab, twenty miles away.

Currently the tests are taken by couriers in vans - a journey that can take anywhere between 40 minutes and three hours depending on traffic in this built up region near London.

It is hoped soon these large integrated drones will form an airbridge between the two locations, providing faster results and better patient outcomes.

Down the road Christopher Law, co-founder of Apian the tech start-up behind the drones, is unloading the NHS-branded drone at Pathology First - a medical test hub that can process more than 50,000 tests a day.

Law is taking the drone into the lab to make some checks.

He is a trainee doctor who realised during his time working at a hospital in east London that the pathology department was facing significant delays for its test results.

He had a solution.

"There were issues with samples being delivered and also we were having the reliability and regularity of items being shipped one place to another," he says. "That was the key issue that we heard first hand when we were speaking to the pathology technicians themselves and that led on to us thinking there's a big problem with the cost... the environmental aspects and also the reliability of the current ground transformation so new and innovative ways need to be thought of and that's why we decided to go with drones which provide a good alternative to this problem."

Hammad Jeliani is Law's colleague and the co-founder of their firm Apian.

Jeliani, he is also a trainee doctor who just happens to love drones.

Both Apian's co-founders are NHS staff and are also part of the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme which encourages innovation.

A drone like this can cost around £10,000 (USD 12,000) at the moment, but it is hoped as the project advances savings can be made.

Jeliani explains: "So this is actually an integrated drone, it has the capabilities of a normal quad copter drone that lifts up and down like that but it actually has the wings of a plane which means once it lifts off and goes into cruise mode it can fly quite fast at 60 miles an hour and it can fly very far because it's efficient, and it can fly around 60 miles one trip and it can carry about 60 patient swabs to 80 patient swabs at any time, and it's been designed to fly in all weather conditions, it's fully rain proof and it can fly in quite windy conditions, it was originally designed to operate in offshore wind farms."

The drone is relatively low maintenance and can be serviced and operated by a single person.

It is fully automated but always requires an operator to keep an eye on its flight.

The journey between Broomfield and Pathology First will take about 20 minutes by drone which is a significant saving and crucially, it's a more reliable timing whereas the couriers are dependent on local traffic.

Many of the medical tests aren't urgent, but during these times all patients undergoing surgery require a negative COVID-19 test so a faster result means there are fewer delays.

Deborah Packwood has been in pathology for nearly 40 years, she is currently SYNLAB UK's head of transformation, which means its part of her job to find innovative technological solutions to old problems... and there's no problem as old for many of us as traffic.

When Apian approached her to work in partnership in these trials she quickly recognised the potential.

Packwood explains: "So for me there's two things. The speed of transfer of samples so we can get results to the clinicians quickly, as we work hub and spoke it's about getting the right sample to the right laboratory at the right time. And then the other passion SYNLAB has is working with the environment so reduction in emissions and reducing the carbon footprint is another great reason for working with the drones."

The environmental advantage of the drone is obvious - providing its batteries are charged by green energy sources then it is almost emission-free.

By contrast, the couriers are driving diesel vans which are releasing emissions at ground level in urban areas - particularly when the traffic is heavy.

Of course, flying large drones around London's congested airspace is no easy regulatory task and approval for the project required strict flight paths.

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