ReviewJournal of family medicine and primary care2019
Unmanned aerial vehicle (drones) in public health: A SWOT analysis.
Review in Journal of family medicine and primary care, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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
27 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 117 citations in OpenAlex.
- Drone Applications for Emergency and Urgent Care: A Systematic Review.Prehospital and disaster medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Drone for medical products transportation in maternal healthcare: A systematic review and framework for future research.Medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Current and potential uses of drones in healthcare delivery in sub-Saharan Africa: a rapid scoping review.Global health action · 2026Article
- Drone-based sputum transport for TB diagnosis in remote communities.IJTLD open · 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
- Drone-Assisted Organ Transport: A Scoping Review of Clinical, Regulatory, and System Readiness.Clinical transplantation · 2025Article
- 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
- Healthcare providers' and community stakeholders' perception of using drones for tuberculosis diagnosis in Nepal: an exploratory qualitative study.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Survey on Path Planning for UAVs in Healthcare Missions.Journal of medical systems · 2023Review
- The Use of Artificial Intelligence Approaches for Performance Improvement of Low-Cost Integrated Navigation Systems.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
- Global mortality of snakebite envenoming between 1990 and 2019.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Conditional trust: Community perceptions of drone use in malaria control in Zanzibar.Technology in society · 2022Article
- Human drone interaction in delivery of medical supplies: A scoping review of experimental studies.PloS one · 2022Article
- Article
- Drone versus ambulance for blood products transportation: an economic evaluation study.BMC health services research · 2021Article
- Age-appropriate vaccination coverage and its determinants in children aged 12-36 months in Nepal: a national and subnational assessment.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Clinical management of snakebite envenoming: Future perspectives.Toxicon: X · 2021Article
- Ethical Considerations Associated with "Humanitarian Drones": A Scoping Literature Review.Science and engineering ethics · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In developing countries, lack of access to roads is critical for medical supplies like vaccines and drugs. Air transport like a helicopter is expensive and not affordable. The success of drones in the fields of ecology and environment makes us believe that they can also be used in the field of Public Health as medical couriers. The important strength of using drones is its potential to decrease the travel time for diagnosis and treatment. They are a cost-effective alternative to road transport in difficult terrains. Drones can be used in the transport of blood from the blood bank to the place of surgery and that of specimens from hard-to-reach areas to the labs in nearby towns. They can deliver essential medicines like anti-venom for snake bite and dog bite and prevent deaths. Drones can be employed in disaster relief operations for rescuing victims and in the delivery of food, water, and medicines. Organs can be transported in a short time bypassing the busy traffic. However, operating drones require trained staff and the lack of infrastructure like runway is a potential problem. Drones cannot carry heavier payloads or deliver goods long distances. Drones in the hands of terrorist groups may be weaponized and used for terror attacks. Medical drones may be mistaken for military Drone and attacked by armed forces.
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.