Interactive medical drones: No longer science fiction

WASHINGTON — The towering tornado that struck Hattiesburg, Miss., in 2013 ripped roofs off houses, twisted steel girders as though they were Play-Doh, obliterated buildings and tossed cars through the air like toys. It barreled down Hardy Street “like a bowling ball,” said Dr. Italo Subbarao.

In the aftermath of the twister, Subbarao, an associate dean and disaster medicine specialist at the William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Hattiesburg, sent his students out to study how quickly emergency medical teams had responded to the disaster. The tornado, with winds up to 170 mph, had injured at least 80 people. In some cases, the students found, emergency medical responders had been slowed by fallen trees, power lines and debris as they tried to reach the injured.

That research led Subbarao to wonder if there was a way to deliver medical care before emergency responders could navigate the mayhem that comes with a natural or man-made disaster. His answer: a drone outfitted with audiovisual equipment and medical supplies.

By combining the two technologies, drones and telemedicine, a doctor miles away could instruct a layman at the scene in how to provide rudimentary, but perhaps life-saving, medical care.

The most extensive use of drones for medical purposes appears to be in Rwanda, where last year drones started dropping medical supplies to hospitals.

Lee Smithson, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said, “This is going to be a phenomenal way to provide immediate medical attention anywhere in the state.” Noting Mississippi’s frequent poor rankings among states in measures of well-being, he added, “It’s about time that Mississippi leads the nation in something good for a change.”

The plan, Smithson said, is to eventually station a drone in as many as nine different areas of the state, so every place in Mississippi is within two hours of a medical drone.

Smithson of the state Emergency Management Agency said the medical drones will not only save lives in the field, but also help coordinate emergency medical care all over the state in a disaster, with doctors from far away able to make triage decisions and ensure that patients get taken to the most appropriate facility for their injuries.

“This is no longer in the realm of science fiction,” he said. “The sky’s the limit.”

AP 2016 A drone aircraft, with a payload of simulated blood and other medical samples, flies during a delivery simulation.