Using drone technology to transport drugs, blood across Sri Lanka
When fatalities occur in parts of the country and things like surgical instruments, drugs and particularly blood are needed urgently, if they are not supplied in the quickest possible time, it could result in death.
Dr. Vijith Gunasekera, former Director of Blood Transfusion Services/Director, Laboratory Services, participating in a ‘round-table video conference for media held in the Parkland Building, Colombo last week and speaking on ‘Challenges and Opportunities in Healthcare logistics in Sri Lanka’, made this observation.
Dr. Gunasekera an expert on a number of fields related to health, including Health Technology Assessment and Disaster Management is now in London, currently a Visiting Academic/Research Fellow at Warwick Evidence, Department of Health Economics, University of Warwick.
He said that the prompt supply of such essential needs could be provided, if modern technology could be appropriately employed which could save time and money as well as curtail wastage, while most essentially save invaluable lives.
In the case of Sri Lanka, for example he said that in the supply of blood there are 110 blood banks around the country and these blood banks have to be maintained with medical professionals, doctors and nurses while blood has to be transported by road which takes a lot of time.
Giving an example of what is happening elsewhere in the world, he said in Rwanda and Ghana the transfer of blood to various parts of the country is done by ‘drones’, the best way of employing the modern technology – the benefits of what he called ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution’.
He said: “Healthcare technologies are evolving and ever advancing and no country can evade such an advancement and rapid progression of the healthcare industry. People will be demanding cutting edge health technologies. It is the responsibility of the policy makers to invest on the right technology at the right time that would bring about most benefits to the people through evidence synthesises through a process of Health Technology Assessment”.
He said that this technology if properly focused could be used to supply the urgent needs of urgent drugs and even some sophisticated surgical instruments employing the ‘drone technology’. He said that in Sri Lanka there are so many emergency situations where accessibility is barred, such as floods where those areas cannot be reached by road. A good example in Sri Lanka was the tsunami in 2004 where accessibility was prevented.
He said that as a doctor, disaster management is a very difficult task and said that during his career he has encountered fatal situations where if blood and other essential drugs were available immediately, those fatalities could have been avoided.
In a country like Sri Lanka it is advantageous to use this kind of technology. Specially, in the case of cardiology, for example in a transplant the urgent requirement of blood is so demanding as elsewhere in the world. But the question is, he said in a country like Sri Lanka the government is providing the healthcare system 100 per cent free and whether it could afford it. The question is the demand and how the needs could be provided, which is the big challenge. He said that therefore, decisions have to be made on the investment.
He said the decision makers should base their decisions on evidence and evidence is always through research and information. He said: “Obviously we need higher level capacity to make that kind of decision and if you do not manage your finances or the resources properly your research would be a waste”.
He indicated that the world today is in the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ and in that kind of a revolution the authorities should make that kind of decisions very rationally as ‘artificial intelligence’ is one of the examples and is a big challenge, and adapting it would benefit the people immensely, he remarked.
He pointed out that if a country like Sri Lanka could employ such technology, even some of the healthcare workers can be replaced, and sometimes even nurses, doctors too can be replaced.