Mar 27, 2019

Drones are now in hospitals

The push to begin delivering commercial products via drone is starting — where else? — with health care.

Driving the news: A North Carolina hospital is part of the first regular commercial drone flights the Federal Aviation Administration has ever authorized, AP reports.

  • The drones are flying blood samples from one hospital building to another, per AP.
  • The FAA has also signed off on a test program in Nevada that would use drones to deliver defibrillators to patients in rural areas during an emergency.

The other side: "They're cool, headline-making tests. But when you get down to ... the economics of logistics, that's a different matter," said Colin Snow, of the drone research firm Skylogic.

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