Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41716959›Full record

ArticleDialogues in health2026

Drones in healthcare logistics: Insights from healthcare professionals' perspective on Zipline delivery services in Ghana.

Emmanuel Komla Dzisi, Morrice Kobby Patterson, Seidu Iddrisu

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Dialogues in health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Emmanuel Komla DzisiDepartment of Civil Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Morrice Kobby PattersonRegional Transportation Research and Education Center KNUST (TRECK), Kumasi, Ghana.
Seidu IddrisuRegional Transportation Research and Education Center KNUST (TRECK), Kumasi, Ghana.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The use of drones for healthcare delivery has emerged as a promising innovation for improving access to essential medical supplies, particularly in hard-to-reach areas and during emergencies. This study explores healthcare professionals' perspectives on Zipline's drone services in enhancing healthcare delivery in Ghana, focusing on their awareness, perceived benefits, and challenges. Data was collected through a cross-sectional survey of 696 healthcare professionals across Zipline Ghana's six distribution centers and analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests of association, and the Kruskal-Wallis test. The results indicate relatively high awareness (62%) of drone services, although facility-level usage was uneven. The findings further reveal that, while drones provide valuable logistical support, they are complementary tools rather than substitutes for broader systemic reforms. Major challenges identified included high operational costs, technical limitations, and concerns about their long-term sustainability. As one of the first large-scale empirical assessments of healthcare professionals' perceptions of drone-enabled healthcare logistics in Sub-Saharan Africa, these findings offer new evidence and policy-relevant insights for Ghana's healthcare system and contribute to broader global discussions on the integration of drones into healthcare delivery.

Indexed as

Drone deliveryHealthcare logisticsHealth system innovationMedical supply chainZipline Ghana

Identifiers

PMID41716959
PMCPMC12914684

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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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.