The Potential of Multi-rotor Drone to Strengthen Emergency Medical Service System: a preliminary study in a Chinese county

Objective: To explore the feasibility and advantage of using multi-rotor drones in a county emergency medical service system.Methods: This study was conducted in Changxing County, Zhejiang Province from January to September 2018. We applied drones to simulate the transfer of first aid materials from health centers to the Changxing County People's Hospital. A total of 3 indicators were obtained: (1) The flight time of the drone; (2) The estimated time of ambulance dispatched from the county hospital was measured by Baidu map, Amap and Tencent map software; (3) The road transportation time measured by Amap software at 0: 00, 8: 00, 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00, 18:00, 20:00.Results: A total of 10 health centers were included in this study. Linear distance from county people's hospital to these centers was (10.97±3.59) km, and the road distance was (13.61±4.95) km. (2) The flight time of drones were (16.35±5.15) min, less than road transportation time measured by Amap, Baidu, and Tencent map software, which was (21.40±5.15) min, (22.50±6.11) min, (22.00±5.23) min, respectively (P＜0.01). The road transportation time measured using Amap software was longer than that of drones from 0:00 to 20:00 (P＜0.01), with the maximum time of (27.80±6.12) min at 18:00, and the minimum time of (21.40±5.15) min at midnight. Drones could save up to 14.07 min at most and 2.8min at least, with an average save of (7.98±1.32) min.Conclusions: Drone was faster than road transportation to transfer first aid medical supplies within a county. Further researches are needed to integrate drone into emergency medical service system.