ReviewBMJ global health2019
Bi-directional drones to strengthen healthcare provision: experiences and lessons from Madagascar, Malawi and Senegal.
Review in BMJ global health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Drone Applications for Emergency and Urgent Care: A Systematic Review.Prehospital and disaster medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Wings of access: a cluster RCT on drone-based medical commodity delivery in remote Madagascar.BMJ global health · 2026Trial
- 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
- Public health surveillance of tropical diseases in Madagascar: a scoping review of population burden, intervention strategies, and health system responses.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Perspectives of healthcare workers on drone-enabled healthcare delivery in challenging terrains of Manipur and Nagaland, India: a qualitative research.Journal of public health policy · 2025Article
- A Systematic Review of Drone Customization and Application in Public Health Innovation.Cureus · 2025Review
- Extreme geographic misalignment of healthcare resources and HIV treatment deserts in Malawi.Nature 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
- Unmanned aerial vehicles and pre-hospital emergency medicine.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2024Review
- Digital Transformation of Public Health for Noncommunicable Diseases: Narrative Viewpoint of Challenges and Opportunities.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- Using drones to improve care for HIV-exposed children in Conakry, Republic of Guinea: Anthropological perspectives.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Adopting sustainable innovations for remote access to TB and HIV care in South Africa.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Improving early infant diagnosis for HIV-exposed infants using unmanned aerial vehicles for blood sample transportation in Conakry, Guinea: a comparative cost-effectiveness analysis.BMJ global health · 2023Article
- Vaccine distribution with drones for less developed countries: A case study in Vanuatu.Vaccine: X · 2023Article
- Elevating Healthcare: Rapid Literature Review on Drone Applications for Streamlining Disaster Management and Prehospital Care in Saudi Arabia.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The Use of Drones to Deliver Rift Valley Fever Vaccines in Rwanda: Perceptions and Recommendations.Vaccines · 2023Article
- Artificial intelligence for strengthening healthcare systems in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic scoping review.NPJ digital medicine · 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
16 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Drones are increasingly being used globally for the support of healthcare programmes. Madagascar, Malawi and Senegal are among a group of early adopters piloting the use of bi-directional transport drones for health systems in sub-Saharan Africa. This article presents the experiences as well as the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis) of these country projects. Methods for addressing regulatory, feasibility, acceptability, and monitoring and evaluation issues are presented to guide future implementations. Main recommendations for governments, implementers, drone providers and funders include (1) developing more reliable technologies, (2) thorough vetting of drone providers' capabilities during the selection process, (3) using and strengthening local capacity, (4) building in-country markets and businesses to maintain drone operations locally, (5) coordinating efforts among all stakeholders under government leadership, (6) implementing and identifying funding for long-term projects beyond pilots, and (7) evaluating impacts via standardised indicators. Sharing experiences and evidence from ongoing projects is needed to advance the use of drones for healthcare.
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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.