Drone Flies Human Kidney

Off-the-shelf commercial drones can successfully be used for human organ transport. That’s the conclusion of a new study by University of Maryland researchers published this month in the IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine. The researchers used a DJI M600 six-rotor UAS to fly a human kidney on a simulated inner-city, hospital-to-hospital transfer; a three-mile maximum route over the course of 14 test missions. Maximum speed was 42 mph.

The drone was fitted with a special organ transport case equipped with a wireless biosensor combined with an organ GPS. Temperature of the organ remained stable during flight, the drone flight offered less vibration (less than 0.5 g) than fixed-wing transport, and biopsies of the kidney taken before and after the flights revealed no damage.

The study concluded, “Organ transportation may be an ideal use-case for drones. With the development of faster, larger drones, long-distance drone organ shipment may result in substantially reduced cold ischemia times, subsequently improved organ quality, and thousands of lives saved” and that organs could be moved faster and less expensively with drones than with manned, fixed-wing charter flights, the current practice in many cases.