The big picture: Hospitals around the world have increasingly adopted drones to transport blood in urgent situations. While the tech has typically been used in rural or suburban areas, a new pilot project in central London will mark one of the first instances of medical drones operating in a densely populated region.
The UK's National Health Service (NHS) is launching a
medical drone delivery service in central London to transport urgent blood samples between Guy's Hospital and St Thomas' Hospital.
The project is a collaboration between the NHS, Wing (an Alphabet subsidiary), and Apian, a healthcare logistics startup founded by former NHS doctors.
The service aims to significantly reduce delivery times for critical blood samples, benefiting patients at high risk of complications from bleeding disorders during surgery.
Wing's drones, capable of flying at speeds of approximately 100 km/h, will complete the journey between the two hospital rooftops in under two minutes. Currently, van and motorbike couriers take over 30 minutes to cover the same distance.
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