Drones cut defibrillator delivery time

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden developed a drone equipped with a defibrillator to test whether the technology could be useful in treating cardiac arrest in the community as reported in the British Medical Journal. It was dispatched for 18 test “drops” two miles from the launch site and arrived on average 5.21 minutes later, compared with 22 minutes when using the emergency medical services.

“Saving 16 minutes is likely to be clinically important,” concluded the researchers in JAMA.

“Nonetheless, further test flights, technological development, and evaluation of integration with dispatch centres and aviation administrators are needed.”