ReviewJSLS : Journal of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons
Surgical and Medical Applications of Drones: A Comprehensive Review.
Review in JSLS : Journal of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 215 citations in OpenAlex.
- Drone Applications for Emergency and Urgent Care: A Systematic Review.Prehospital and disaster medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Drone-based sputum transport for TB diagnosis in remote communities.IJTLD open · 2026Article
- Reducing rural health inequity through drone-based delivery: a spatial multi-criteria decision framework prioritizing epidemiological vulnerability in hub location.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- The Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) on Delivering Biological Samples for COVID-19 and Tuberculosis Diagnosis: A Scoping Review.Therapeutic innovation & regulatory science · 2026Article
- Family Caregivers' Perspectives on the Potential of Drone-Based Medication Delivery in Palliative Home Care: Qualitative Focus Group Study.JMIR human factors · 2025Article
- Drones in Health Care-A Flying Potential.Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine · 2025Article
- Classification of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Based on Acoustic Signals Obtained in External Environmental Conditions.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Challenges & barriers for real-time integration of drones in emergency cardiac care: Lessons from the United States, Sweden, & Canada.Resuscitation plus · 2024Review
- Risks of Drone Use in Light of Literature Studies.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Unmanned aerial vehicles and pre-hospital emergency medicine.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2024Review
- Optimizing a Drone Network to Respond to Opioid Overdoses.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2023Article
- Elevating Healthcare: Rapid Literature Review on Drone Applications for Streamlining Disaster Management and Prehospital Care in Saudi Arabia.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Conceptual Bases of a Quantitative Method for Assessing the Transferability of Medical Technologies Across the Rich-Poor Divide.Journal of the knowledge economy · 2023Article
- For Heart Rate Assessments from Drone Footage in Disaster Scenarios.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Origami and Kirigami Structure for Impact Energy Absorption: Its Application to Drone Guards.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Unmanned aerial vehicle based intelligent triage system in mass-casualty incidents using 5G and artificial intelligence.World journal of emergency medicine · 2023Article
- A hierarchical model for strategic and operational planning in blood transportation with drones.PloS one · 2023Article
- Article
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in the Logistics of Pandemic Vaccination: An Exact Analytical Approach for Any Number of Vaccination Centres.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Possibilities of Using UAVs in Pre-Hospital Security for Medical Emergencies.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDrones have the ability to gather real time data cost effectively, to deliver payloads and have initiated the rapid evolution of many industrial, commercial, and recreational applications. Unfortunately, there has been a slower expansion in the field of medicine. This article provides a comprehensive review of current and future drone applications in medicine, in hopes of empowering and inspiring more aggressive investigation. DATABASE: A literature search was performed by EBSCO (Elton B. Stephens Company) Discovery Service, searching the phrases "drones," "UAV," "unmanned aerial vehicles," "UAS," and "unmanned aerial systems." A second search was used to identify sources that contained "drone" in the subject or title and "medicine" in any of the text, yielding 60,260 results. After screening for irrelevant material, 1296 sources remained applicable. Major themes and number of sources were as follows: 116 public health and medical surveillance, 8 telemedicine, and 78 medical transport systems.
conclusionDrones are used for surveillance of disaster sites and areas with biological hazards, as well as in epidemiology for research and tracking disease spread. Telecommunication drones are being used for diagnosis and treatment, perioperative evaluation, and telementoring in remote areas. Drones have the potential to be reliable medical delivery platforms for microbiological and laboratory samples, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, emergency medical equipment, and patient transport. Government agencies have placed drone use on the national agenda. The next steps include aggressive research initiatives in the areas of safety, industry expansion, increased public awareness, and participation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.