Excited by the Success of a pilot project for vaccine delivery in Northeastern states, ICMR now wants to make it Big and releases guidelines for the usage of drones in Medical logistics in India
Last year ICMR has carried out a pilot project in the Northeastern states of Nagaland and Manipur and the terrain was tough to deliver adjoining to Myanmar Border. The pilot project was a great success and now ICMR has come up with details guidelines about usage of Drone in the healthcare industry
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The guidelines adhere to drone rules 2021 so as to avoid confusion about its usage for medical logistic purposes
Following are the mail Point that guidelines for drone covers
- Usage of Drones will be limited to carrying vaccines, Serums, and temperature-sensitive medical supplies that need a temperature between 2 degrees to 8 degrees Celcius, and other non-temperature-sensitive supplies like tablets and surgical items
- The list includes Blood pouches, Pathological samples, frozen specimens etc
- The operator must be trained and prepared to fly a drone and with proper license by authority, additionally, the receiver side should be well prepared to receive goods without any deviation
- All UAVs must be registered at the digitalsky platform from DGCA and registered before flight
- The carrying box needs to be checked and verified before every flight
- Strong coordination is needed between sending side and receiving side
- Any such operation is to be covered under the directions of DGCA and AAI
- All unforeseen events are to be reported to DGCA and Local police ASAP
Currently, ICMR is testing the viability of this pilot project and for this ICMR proposed a Hub and Spoke model, where a centralized unit will be used for distributing medical supplies
Hub And Spoke model for Drone operation in ICMR.Here Hub represents District Hospital and Spoke represents PHC/ CHC
Apart from this document also enlist the guidelines for following
- Scope of Use of drone in Medical logistic
- Regulatory and statutory guidelines
- Selection of Drone and carry box and preparation before flight
- Establishment of Drone command center
- Storage and maintenance of drone in nonoperating hours
- Type of medical supply allowed
- Component of Payload and carry box structure
- Training in human resources
- Managing Unforeseen events
- Checklist before every flight
ICMR is planning to make supply routes as DH to DH, DH to PHC means district hospital to district hospital and District hospital to PHC
Source:- https://www.icmr.gov.in/idrone/pdf_book/Guidance_use_drones_healthcare/mobile/index.html
