ArticleTransactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene2020
A drone delivery network for antiepileptic drugs: a framework and modelling case study in a low-income country.
Article in Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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
8 citing papers in PubMed, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Family Caregivers' Perspectives on the Potential of Drone-Based Medication Delivery in Palliative Home Care: Qualitative Focus Group Study.JMIR human factors · 2025Article
- Using drones to improve care for HIV-exposed children in Conakry, Republic of Guinea: Anthropological perspectives.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
- Survey on Path Planning for UAVs in Healthcare Missions.Journal of medical systems · 2023Review
- Current summary of the evidence in drone-based emergency medical services care.Resuscitation plus · 2023Review
- Realities of Using Drones to Transport Laboratory Samples: Insights from Attended Routes in a Mixed-Methods Study.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2022Article
- Human drone interaction in delivery of medical supplies: A scoping review of experimental studies.PloS one · 2022Article
- Impact of Using Drones in Emergency Medicine: What Does the Future Hold?Open access emergency medicine : OAEM · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn urbanized, low-income cities with high rates of congestion, delivery of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) by unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) to people with epilepsy for both emergency and non-urgent distribution may prove beneficial.
methodsConakry is the capital of the Republic of Guinea, a low-income sub-Saharan African country (2018 per capita gross national income US$830). We computed the number of drones and delivery times to distribute AEDs from a main urban hospital to 27 pre-identified gas stations, mosques and pharmacies and compared these to the delivery times of a personal vehicle.
resultsWe predict that a single drone could serve all pre-identified delivery locations in Conakry within a 20.4-h period. In an emergency case of status epilepticus, 8, 20 and 24 of the 27 pre-identified destinations can be reached from the hub within 5, 10 and 15 min, respectively. Compared with the use of a personal vehicle, the response time for a drone is reduced by an average of 78.8% across all times of the day.
conclusionsDrones can dramatically reduce the response time for both emergency and routine delivery of lifesaving medicines. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such a drone delivery model with relevance to epilepsy. However, the commissioning of a trial of drones for drug delivery in related diseases and geographies is justified.
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.