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Before companies like Amazon began to trial drone deliveries, North Carolina’s WakeMed healthcare system launched a program that could shape the future of drone delivery in the United States. The 919-bed hospital system has three primary campuses throughout the Raleigh metropolitan area and four outpatient centers. Together, the WakeMed campuses serve a population exceeding 1 million people spread over more than 2,000 square miles. Transporting materials such as tissue samples from one campus to another is often a logistical challenge. With the contents of these packages being time-sensitive, logistics coordinators and doctors at the hospital knew there had to be a better way to carry out deliveries.

Typically, medical couriers would zigzag between locations throughout the day to complete deliveries. Given the traffic conditions, ensuring that items arrived on time could be risky. Additionally, the costs of having large fleets of delivery drivers traversing the area multiple times a day are substantial. In collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), and the drone delivery company Matternet, WakeMed became one of the first healthcare systems to begin transporting medical supplies with drones.

Trials of the three-year pilot program began in August 2018. “This ‘First Flight’ is a major step forward in the worlds of healthcare and unmanned technology,” said Basil Yap, head of NCDOT’s UAS Program. “We’re crossing a new frontier that will bring increased efficiency and lower costs to healthcare providers and ultimately help save patients’ lives.” As the impacts of the coronavirus grew, the FAA soon granted WakeMed a waiver to expand its drone delivery program. Soon, the drone delivery program being trialed in North Carolina became a model for how drones could be used to safely and successfully deliver packages, whether for medical supplies or even a cup of coffee.

Today, the impacts of WakeMed’s drone program continue to grow, especially in the medical sector, where drone deliveries have a life-saving impact. Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY, a part of the SUNY research programs, launched a drone delivery trial this past spring. On May 22, 2024, the Upstate Medical University Air Upstate Drone Team conducted its first flight test. The drone flew from Oneida County’s FAA-designated New York Unmanned Aerial System Test Site at the Griffiss International Airport in Rome, NY, to the hospital in Syracuse. The 18.6-mile round trip took less than 20 minutes and was completed BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line Of Sight). “There are many practical and financially sound applications for drones,” said Mark Zeman, Upstate’s Chief Information Officer, “but the most crucial for Upstate is the ability to expedite care for our most vulnerable patients.”

Similarly, Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital and the Delnor Cancer Center in Geneva, IL, have begun testing drone deliveries of medical supplies to expedite patient care. The medical center has partnered with local drone company Valqari. Founded in 2017, Valqari is a drone delivery service that has designed drone ports to streamline the delivery process. Their fully autonomous drones dock in these ports, which serve as charging, landing, launching, loading, and offloading stations.

For the Delnor trial, ports were set up between the two campuses. A hospital staff member secures the supplies to be transported in a locker at the drone port after placing a delivery order with all pertinent details through an app. The drone then remotely picks up the package and delivers it to the designated locker at the other port. Ryan Walsh, CEO and founder of Valqari, explained that without drones, hospital workers like nurses would have to waste upwards of 30 minutes a day to complete deliveries. When hospitals are already short-staffed, they cannot afford to lose team members for 30 minutes a day multiple times. “A half-hour is a good chunk of a nurse’s day,” Mr. Walsh said. “We can make that same delivery in about four minutes.”

While people eagerly await drone deliveries from mass consumer companies like Amazon and Walmart, medical drone deliveries are proving how viable the platform can be. These hospitals and medical centers have developed the logistical framework that allows drones to get supplies from point A to point B. Patients have access to medications, blood transfusions, or even organ donations, while medical personnel are no longer bogged down by the time constraints of traditional courier systems. Sure, it would be great to order everyday necessities online and have them delivered within an hour by drone. But the reality is that being able to safely and expediently deliver life-saving medical supplies in record time is far more important.

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