Swiss Post Expands Hospital Autonomous Drone Operation

“Time is money” is a common phrase on the street; but in the medical or paramedic sector, time is life. Whether it be rescue services, emergency response units, intensive care setups or laboratory samples, the time taken between different steps along the way is crucial and achieving more and more in as less time as possible can make the difference between a casualty and a successful treatment.

Acknowledging and addressing this issue, the Swiss post has recently announced their pilot project as per which they transport laboratory samples between different hospitals and labs in as little time as possible. Their means s of reducing this travel time is the usage of drones as compared to convenient meanans of transport like vans and cars that often transport medical samples and d physical laboratory results between hospitals.

Zurich air route

For their one year pilot project, the Swiss post will be testing their drone delivery eservices within two different hospitals – University Hospital of Zurich and the Irchel site of the University of Zurich, which are separated by a distance of around 2.5 kilometers which seemingly isn’t a lot of travel distance, but the time taken for a laboratory sample to be transported from one lab to the other and then back is crucial to patients who require immediate reports, such as patients under anesthesia.

The Swiss post is collaborating with the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA); the office monitors Swiss airspace. Local government authorities are also collaborating with the Swiss post with smooth running of the project.

The Swiss post is starting their trials or flights on Thursday. Each week day having five to ten scheduled flights throughout the day.