County to test system for medical drone deliveries through 911 dispatch
By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill
A coalition of public agencies and private companies is seeking to demonstrate the viability of using a 911 dispatch system to dispatch drones filled with medical supplies and lifesaving equipment to patients in a rugged rural area of Western Pennsylvania.
The project, known as Droned814, will conduct a series of test flights this summer, in which the Cambria County Emergency Services will dispatch the supply-laden UAVs in response to emergency medical 911 calls emanating from the mountainous regions surrounding Johnstown, Pa.
Glenn Ponus, project manager of Drone 814, said the new system will be tried out during two two-week testing periods, one in July and one in August. During those two time windows, whenever a 911 call that meets the proper criteria for a medical drone response comes into the Cambria County 911 dispatch center both a UAV and an ambulance will be sent out in response.
“We look for example at possible heart attacks, possible drug overdoses, anaphylactic shock, extensive bleeding in limbs where tourniquets can be applied or low blood sugar,” said Ponus, the executive director of Aerium, a nonprofit corporation that promotes aviation innovation and workforce development in Pennsylvania.
Aerium is working in partnership with drone delivery service and software company DroneUp, which is handling the UAV flight operations for the project.
“The 911 dispatch will contact DroneUp, which will dispatch a drone to the scene. It will travel beyond visual line of sight upwards of eight miles away from where the drone is launched. And it will carry on board an EpiPen, Narcan, an electronic defibrillator, a tourniquet and oral glucose,” Ponus said.
At the same time, the dispatch operator will send out a team of first responders to the site of the medical emergency, knowing that in all likelihood, the drone will arrive ahead of the human responders. It will lower the package containing the medical supplies equipment to the person at the scene who placed the 911 call and who has remained on the line with the 911 dispatcher.
“The dispatch will walk the person through what’s in the smaller boxes inside and how to administer the specific medical treatment, whether it be medication or the specific medical intervention,” Ponus said. This will enable the nonprofessional person on the scene to continue to handle the emergency situation until the professional first responders arrive on the scene some minutes later to take over.
“The purpose is to demonstrate the efficacy of drone delivery in what was essentially a very rural community, one that is very difficult to get around in, in vehicles,” Ponus said.
Phase one of the Drone814 program, named for the area code in and around Johnstown, is being administered by the Southern Allegheny Planning and Development Commission and is funded by a $1.9 million SMART grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Feasibility of 911 drone dispatch under study
“One of the intents of the phase one is to determine feasibility, to understand risk and understand everything you need for your approach,” said Greg James, DroneUp’s vice president of business development. Following the completion of stage one, the program will go into stage two, to prove out the program’s efficacy, its community benefits and its potential for future commercialization.”
James said the goal of phase one of the program is to prove that the dispatch of medical supplies can be seamlessly incorporated into a 911 dispatch system for the benefit of that community’s residents. “Can you prove out the overall effectiveness of the program so that you can repeat it and you understand what it takes to operate in different regions and scale across states and then into a national program,” he said.
Prior to the official start of the testing periods, Drone814 held several demonstrations of the system at community and professional events, which were witnessed by state and local political leaders.
DroneUp, an FAA-certified Part 135 air carrier, will operate the drones under its Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA), James said. The company is partnering with ATA Aviation, which will set up sensor integration to help monitor air traffic and create a common operational picture.
James said for airspace deconfliction purposes, the Drone814 system employs a broad technology ecosystem in which DroneUp integrates its proprietary UNcrew open autonomy platform into the broader airspace platform. “And that’s how you get into demonstrating how some of the coordination efforts and next-generation autonomy can come together,” he said.
Establishing a region-wide UTM system
As part of the effort to establish a countywide unmanned aircraft traffic management system, several different types of sensors, including Remote ID, ADS-B and optical radar sensors, are being installed throughout the region.
Currently, DroneUp is operating PRISM Quadcopters in its flights, but James said the system can be designed to use any type of drone, based on the flying needs of a particular region.
“One of the interesting parts about our platform is we can integrate with multiple types of drones. We are not a stove-piped technology. Everything’s done with open and architecture,” he said. “So, as we look at opportunities to advance this program and the system that supports it, we think about the right drone for the right use case.”
Ponus said the topography of the Johnstown region makes it an ideal location for developing a drone-based medical supply delivery system.
“Johnstown is in a very mountainous area. It’s almost canyon-like. There are basically canyons running northeast, south and west (of the city) and with very steep drop-offs and then essentially mountains in between them,” he said.
The Drone 814 technical team has identified several possible locations for siting drone base stations that would give the UAVs ready access to both the downtown Johnstown area and the surrounding more rural regions of the county.
“We’ve selected at least two sites that I’m aware of that are sitting strategically at higher elevations in relatively open areas that have a wide enough area around them to ensure safety,” Ponus said. “They’ve also been selected to cover the maximum area and ensure that we’re able to test the beyond visual line of sight capability.”
As a result of the region’s rugged terrain, the average time to dispatch an emergency vehicle to a scene can be as high as 15 to 20 minutes, even when the distance an ambulance must travel is no more than two or three miles.
“We anticipate being able to get first response on the scene via drones considerably sooner than the 911 EMT or whichever medical group is dispatched, and we anticipate a reduction in time to first response and improved patient outcome,” he said.
“Those are our two efficacy models,” Ponus said. We are looking to ensure that this is an efficacious way to deliver medical services and that we are benefiting the community by doing so.”
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Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
