To speed up the delivery of services and patient care currently managed through ground transport, UC San Diego Health will launch a pilot project in February to test using UAS to transport medical samples, supplies and documents between Jacobs Medical Center and Moores Cancer Center and the Center for Advanced Laboratory Medicine (CALM).

A collaboration with UPS and Matternet, the program builds off the UPS and Matternet drone project that is currently taking place at WakeMed Health and Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

“Currently, medical samples that must be transported between health care sites are carried by courier cars, which are naturally subject to the variabilities of traffic and other ground issues,” explains Matthew Jenusaitis, chief administrative officer for innovation and transformation at UC San Diego Health.

“With drones, we want to demonstrate proof-of-concept for getting vital samples where they need to be for testing or assessment more quickly and simply. It’s another way to leverage emerging technologies in a way that can tangibly benefit our patients.”

During the project, medical professionals at Jacobs Medical Center, located on the east health campus of UC San Diego in La Jolla, will pack payloads such as blood samples or documents into a secure container that attaches to one of Matternet’s M2 UAS.

The UAS will then follow predetermined, low-risk flight paths, initially between Jacobs Medical Center and special landing sites at Moores Cancer Center, which is located less than a mile away and within visual line of sight under the FAA’s Part 107 rules, and then subsequently at CALM, which is near the Jacobs Medical Center. Expected to take just minutes, the flights will be monitored by remote operators.

“Right now, most biological samples must travel between sites by courier car, within designated hours,” comments James Killeen, MD, clinical professor of emergency medicine and director of information technology services at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

“That leaves the system vulnerable to the vagaries of road congestion, accidents, construction and more. Travel time can be slow and unpredictable. A drone can fly over such obstacles in a much more direct way, and take just a few minutes to cover the same distance.”

After the city of San Diego was named one of nine lead participants in the FAA's UAS Integration Pilot Program, the FAA also granted UC San Diego approval to test using UAS for transporting lab specimens and pharmaceuticals throughout its health system.