SynthesisFrontiers in public health2025
Unmanned aerial vehicles in prehospital emergency care: current evidence, technological advances, and future perspectives.
Synthesis in Frontiers in public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Deployment, dispatch, and delivery: a scoping review of drone-delivered AED for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Timely prehospital intervention is essential for improving patient outcomes, yet conventional ambulance-based systems often face delays in remote, congested, or disaster-affected settings. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer a novel, traffic-independent solution with high operational flexibility and rapid deployment capacity. This review aims to summarize current evidence, technological progress, and future challenges of UAVs applications in prehospital emergency care. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and EBSCO Essentials for studies published up to September 2025. Relevant clinical trials, pilot projects, and policy documents were also reviewed to capture the latest developments in UAV-based prehospital interventions. Results: 53 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final analysis. UAVs have been implemented across several domains, including out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, trauma care, emergency medical logistics, and disaster response. Key applications involve rapid automated external defibrillator (AED) delivery, transport of blood products and critical drugs, and aerial imaging for scene assessment and command coordination. Despite growing feasibility evidence, broad implementation is hindered by technical reliability, regulatory restrictions, and limited funding frameworks. Conclusion: UAVs demonstrate significant potential to enhance the speed, coverage, and coordination of prehospital emergency care. Future research should focus on integrating UAVs within established emergency medical service networks, developing unified policy and airspace regulations, and validating cost-effectiveness and clinical impact through large-scale, real-world studies.
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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.