Defibrillator-Carrying Drone Successfully Tested

By Mike Ball / 28 Jun 2019
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Drone Delivery Canada defibrillator delivery

Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) has announced that it has successfully completed phase one of its AED (automated external defibrillator) On The Fly Pilot with Peel Region Paramedics and achieved 100% success rate, concluding that utilizing DDC’s proprietary drone delivery platform to enable rapid first responder technology via drone produces reduced response time.

The Pilot was to determine the effectiveness of delivery of an AED via drone versus a traditional ambulance. To determine this, phase one of the Pilot consisted of simulating 911 emergency calls in the Township of Caledon in the Region of Peel dispatching DDC’s Sparrow drone equipped with specialized first responder payload that included an automated external defibrillator. The delivery time of the drone was then compared against the traditional dispatching of first responder paramedics. Several staged 911 calls were then executed and, in all cases, DDC’s Sparrow drone arrived on-site ahead of the traditional first responder vehicles. DDC’s Sparrow was able to reduce response times on all calls making the pilot a great success.

“This partnership between DDC and Peel Regional Paramedic Services is ground breaking. The program utilizes DDC’s proprietary drone delivery platform to enable rapid first responder technology via drone with the goal to reduce response time and potentially save lives. We look forward to the next phase to bring this vertical closer to commercialization,” commented Michael Zahra, CEO of Drone Delivery Canada.

Dr. Sheldon Cheskes, Medical Director at Sunnybrook Centre for Prehospital Medicine and the Principal Investigator of the AED on the Fly Pilot Research program, commented: “Phase 1 of our research was an impressive success. We were able to demonstrate that drone technology to deliver AED’s for cardiac arrest is not only feasible but has the potential to reduce response times and improve outcomes from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. We will continue to work with DDC to ensure a simple and smooth transition from drone landing to bystander retrieval and use of an AED moving forward.”

Watch a video of the pilot trials below:

Posted by Mike Ball Mike Ball is our resident technical editor here at Unmanned Systems Technology. Combining his passion for teaching, advanced engineering and all things unmanned, Mike keeps a watchful eye over everything related to the unmanned technical sector. With over 10 years’ experience in the unmanned field and a degree in engineering, Mike’s been heading up our technical team here for the last 8 years. Connect & Contact