Document Type

Report

Publication Date

2025

DOI

10.7910/DVN/KB4X8T

Pages

1-124

Abstract

The Drone Medical Package Delivery for Improved Transportation and Better Patient Outcomes planning and prototyping grant involves five partners, including Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission (A-NPDC), Riverside Health System, Old Dominion University (ODU), Virginia Institute for Spaceflight & Autonomy (VISA), Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC), and DroneUp. The partners worked together to address access, safety, reliability and sustainability for medical and emergency response package delivery via drone, specifically, where the use of aerial drones could lead to better patient outcomes and improved safety and emergency response.

The goal of the project was to develop an operational prototype that woul evolve into a self-sustaining delivery service, significantly improving health care outcomes for vulnerable populations, and ensuring direct access for underserved populations. This includes people living in the rural Eastern Shore of Virginia, as well as Tangier Island, which is located in the Chesapeake Bay, 17 miles from the closest hospital. The structure of this report is comprised of two parts with the first half focusing on Stage 1 prototype results and findings and the second half focuses on data supported benefits of at-scale implementation, operational lessons learned and deployment readiness for Stage 2.

In Stage 1, the project achieved significant milestones in management, implementation, workforce development, and public outreach. The team successfully launched the project with clear goals, metrics, and concept of operations. Collaboration with the FAA secured necessary approvals for drone operations, and demonstration flights were conducted to showcase drone technology in real-world scenarios. Data collection supported a comprehensive business case analysis, ensuring technical feasibility and economic sustainability. Additionally, workforce development was initiated using the Talent Training and Development program at Eastern Shore Community College (ESCC) to prepare a skilled workforce for uncrewed autonomous systems (UAS) operations. Public outreach played a crucial role and included media coverage and engaging local stakeholders through public meetings and demonstration events. These efforts helped to build community support and an understanding of the project's objectives among pilots, health care providers, and the general public.

Looking further ahead, the awareness and acceptance of drone delivery service will be a key driver of adoption for at-scale implementation of this project. Comprehensive evaluation of the future value of the program has been performed and addresses this critical factor within the feasibility evaluations. Utilizing the DOT's BCA spreadsheet template for Discretionary Grant Programs to analyze this proposal, the Benefit to Cost Ratio for this program is greater than 3.6, with a net present value of more than $8.6 million, which indicates the operational sustainability of the proposed project. Additional project information and data can be found online at: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/DroneDOTSMART and https://visaatodu.org/elevating-health-care-access-project/

Rights

© 2025 The Authors.

This report is Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License.

ORCID

0000-0002-8492-5267 (El-Adle), 0000-0003-4809-5718 (Chen)

Original Publication Citation

El-Adle, A., Alden, M., Chen, Y.-H., & Davidson, M. (2025). Drone medical package delivery for improved transportation and better patient outcomes final implementation report. Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Program. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/KB4X8T

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