Leveraging unmanned aerial vehicle technology to improve public health practice: Prospects and barriers

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is increasingly being used in different sectors, including public health. Common applications of UAVs in public health are delivering logistics in remote areas, transporting biomedical samples, providing community-based health care, and public health surveillance. UAVs have contributed to efficient public health ensuring better health services activities at a lower cost. Across diverse health-care settings, UAVs are used to minimize human labor and physical barriers such as distance or hazards associated with different tasks. This technology has shown notable success in advancing public health in resource-constrained countries. In Rwanda, the use of UAVs has resulted in robust logistic support and improved vaccine coverage. Faster transportation and coordination between points of health services have facilitated the overall health service delivery. Despite these advancements, there are several challenges in using UAVs in public health, which include technical difficulties in operating UAVs, maintenance of devices and systems, regulatory challenges, safety concerns, air traffic congestion, and cost of using UAVs. These challenges should be addressed with empirical research and innovative interventions to leverage UAVs in preventing health-care problems and saving lives around the world.

Unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance and control of vectors of malaria and other vector-borne diseases

“…Furthermore, UAVs are proving promising in accessing remote or difficult terrain, such as dense forestry, marshlands or urban landscapes. The ability of some UAVs to carry and deploy payloads makes them suitable for the release of control agents at target locations that might otherwise be inaccessible to conventional ground-based transport [13,22,27,76]. There are widespread examples of UAV use in vector habitat surveillance, with the low cost and small take-off space required offering advantages compared to much larger manned aircraft.…”

“…Consequently, it is essential for malaria researchers and control programmes to focus on novel technologies that aid the surveillance of vectors and the delivery of control agents, with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) being one of the promising possible additions to the toolkit [4]. The use of UAVs has seen a considerable expansion from limited military use to their being utilized in a range of scientific and industrial applications, including agricultural remote sensing [5][6][7], response to and prevention of pest outbreaks [8,9], zoonosis control [10], humanitarian emergency response [11,12], public health [13] and species monitoring for conservation [14,15]. The idea of using UAVs in malaria control has been postulated for many years [4,16].…”

Coverage of antenatal iron-folic acid and calcium distribution during pregnancy and their contextual determinants in the northeastern region of India

“…Recently, drones were field-tested and deployed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for delivering vaccines in hard-to-reach locations of NER ( 56 ). Following cost considerations and feasibility studies, such technological solutions may act as force-multipliers to plug coverage gaps in geographically challenging/inaccessible terrain ( 57 ). Simultaneously, measures for overcoming supply chain bottlenecks must be initiated, viz ., timely and accurate forecasting of IFA and calcium supplement requirements, user-friendly and streamlined procurement processes, and creation of sufficient warehousing and logistical infrastructure for inventory management.…”

Possibilities of Using UAVs in Pre-Hospital Security for Medical Emergencies

“…The widespread use of UAVs in healthcare is concerned with logistics, scope, and transportability, with framework legal constraints to effectively use the capabilities to improve the health of the population, especially in costly critical situations. To use drones to save lives around the world, the limitations of the system still need to be met [ 115 ]. At the same time, additive UAVs used to prevent unwanted activities in human concentrations, and preventing emergencies through surveillance of human attitudes are needed [ 116 ].…”