Today's Pickup: This Drone Could Save Your Life

Drones carrying automated defibrillators arrived at least seven minutes ahead of paramedics responding to simulated cardiac arrest patients during a recent round of test flights in Canada.

The flights took place on Sept. 21-22 in Renfrew County, Ontario. Operators flew drones from Indro Robotics beyond their line of sight in a 10-mile radius utilizing a 4G LTE cellular network. 

Drones arrived at least seven minutes ahead of paramedics in simulated responses to cardiac arrest victims. Photo: Indro Robotics

With a future delivery range of up to 80 miles, the drones could "have a transformative impact on emergency care for patients suffering cardiac arrest, especially those in remote private, residential or rural settings, where getting emergency treatment rapidly is the difference between life and death," Renfrew County Paramedic Chief Michael Nolan said in a statement.

The drones utilized connectivity technology from Ericsson and Cradlepoint and shared live video and images with operators. Artificial intelligence aided in functions including collision avoidance. 

Did you know?

Truckers lose $600 per year looking for parking. TruckPark plans to alleviate some of that pain by adding more than 10,000 spaces to its reservation app. 

Quotable:

"The GE Companies failed to take proper and reasonable care with respect to their U.S. economic sanctions obligations—particularly given GE's commercial sophistication." 

– the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control on GE's violation of sanctions against Cuba. 

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Final thoughts:

The success of defibrillator deliveries in Canada adds to growing efforts to use drones for critical medical uses from medical supplies to organs. A lot of finance providers are taking notice. 

In Africa, Zipline has made more than 20,000 deliveries of medical deliveries by drone to Rwanda and Ghana. The company has also raised millions of dollars and is valued at more than $1 billion.

Hammer down everyone!

Image Sourced from Google