Researchers at the University of Kentucky are working on a study about the potential use of drones to deliver medical supplies to rural parts of Appalachia.
The pilot study was a collaborative effort between the University of Kentucky’s Center of Excellence in Rural Health in Hazard, the USA Drone Port, and Kentucky Homeplace.
Ellen Hahn is the former director of UK Cares Center for Appalachian Research and Environmental Sciences. She was on the research team and said the idea came about during the COVID pandemic when many patients in Appalachia could not access masks, gloves, and other forms of PPE.
“We thought this might be an opportunity to see if we could collaborate with the Drone Port to get them what they needed because many of them live in remote areas of Appalachia.”
Hahn said 60% of the study’s participants said they’d be willing to receive items via drone again, and 80% said they would like to schedule future deliveries of PPE items by drone at the end of the study. She said their initial project was a proof of concept.
“Because we had never actually delivered things to patients before, so we reached to about 11 patients, existing patients of Kentucky Homeplace, and they were all, like on average in their mid-60s, and they all were being treated for chronic illness.”
Hahn said they received positive reactions from the patients participating in the study.
She said she hopes to see it expand to help make access to medical supplies, and possibly even medications, easier for people in rural parts of Appalachia who would normally have to travel a long way to visit a doctor or pharmacy.
