“Of course, drones delivering urgent medicines are necessary. But I would not use them until…” Insights from a qualitative study on users’ needs and requirements regarding the use of medical drones

Abstract

Background The current COVID-19 pandemic, demographic trends, and the increasing shortage of skilled workers pose major challenges for the care of people with and without care needs. The potential of drones as unmanned aerial vehicles in health care is being discussed as an effective innovative way of delivering much-needed medicines, especially in rural areas. Although the advantages are well known, the needs of the users have not yet been taken into account. Methods Online-based focus groups (via WebEx) were conducted with participants from different disciplines: nursing, pharmacy, physicians. Focus groups with COVID-19 patients were conducted face-to-face. The focus was primarily on potential problems and requirements of the users regarding the use of drones. Structured and contrastive snowball sampling has been deployed. The focus groups were audio recorded, transcribed by a transcription-company, and coded with the help of the program “f4analyse 2” for content (Elo et al. 2008). Results Especially during the pandemic situation, delays, and restrictions in the delivery of medicines have been noticed. All interview partners (patients, pharmacists, physicians, and nurses; n = 36 participants) see drones as useful in cases of limited mobility, time-critical medicines (rapid availability), emergencies, and disasters (e.g., floods), but also for the delivery of regular medicines in rural areas (e.g., for the treatment of chronic diseases). Moreover, only 16.7% of the participants have experiences with drones. Discussion Drone deliveries do not play a role in the health system yet despite their great importance, which is perceived as particularly evident in the pandemic situation. The results lead to the conclusion that this is mainly due to knowledge and application deficits, so that educational and advisory work is absolutely necessary. There is also a need for further studies that go beyond the scope of acceptance research to describing and evaluating concrete scenarios of drone delivery on the basis of a user-centered approach.

Identifying Factors of User Acceptance of a Drone-Based Medication Delivery: User-Centered Design Approach

“…A short solution for that was to integrate a comment field at the step of ordering the medication to describe further medication wishes as well as to ask questions to the pharmacist. Moreover, participants emphasized, at this point, the importance of shipment tracking, as Fink et al [ 27 ] described in their study. However, the most difficult step participants reported was setting of the delivery location.…”

“…As a first step, we conducted a scoping review of experimental studies examining the interaction between humans and drones during the delivery of drugs and defibrillators to identify research gaps and explore the scope of research activities [ 7 ]. In the next step, problems, needs, and requirements of the users were identified and concrete scenarios were outlined, which were necessary for the implementation of a first demonstrator of the app [ 27 ]. At this point, we decided to use focus groups instead of individual interviews because it allows participants to respond to each other’s answers and gives us the most information.…”

“…Our prior work showed that a pharmacy drone app, for example, must be lean and simple; must facilitate the user’s performance (eg, software integration, shipment tracking, and plannability); must enable control (eg, handover identification and data sovereignty); and must include consultation and reconciliation features. The most frequently discussed problems associated with drones were the physical contact with the drone and the drone’s noise [ 27 ]. Following the focus groups, the developers designed a demonstrator of the app including communication features (eg, an extra text field for communication with the pharmacy), plannability features (eg, time slots for drone delivery), shipment tracking, and features for enabling handover security, which was tested in 3 iteration loops with users.…”

“…However, the third iteration loop (conducted in October 2022) aimed at testing the overall process starting with registration, setting the delivery location, submitting a prescription, and actually receiving a delivery. As focus groups showed concerns about injuries with the drone, this study wanted to test the handover via a winch, a parachute, or dropping to reduce physical contact with the drone, but unfortunately, owing to regulations and restrictions, testing the handover was not possible [ 27 ]. Thus, the drone had to land ( Figure 2 ).…”

“…They were contacted via email or telephone. Core group participants were recruited from the focus group that was conducted in October 2021 [ 27 ]. A total of 3 pharmacists, 2 nurses, 3 general practitioners, and 1 patient with COVID-19 were recruited from the focus groups.…”