Skip to main content

Cure for Health Care? Using Drone Technology in Hospital Processes—An Explorative Analysis

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Third International Congress on Information and Communication Technology

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 797))

  • 1889 Accesses

Abstract

While developed and initially used by militaries, the technology of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, has already proven the potential to disrupt several industries ranging from gaming and sports to police and defense, as well as arts and entertainment, logistics, search, and rescue. The paper at hand aims at outlining the potential and possible fields of application using drone technology inside the Swiss hospital environment. The research problem is analyzed from two main perspectives: (1) the hospital environment with its domain-specific conditions, particularities, and constraints, and (2) the field of drones, including its range of best practices, regulations, standards, and available technology. As part of a survey, face-to-face interviews with CIOs and IT executives of four Swiss hospitals were conducted on the status quo of drone technology in the Swiss hospital environment providing valuable insights into the current situation and the possible fields of application. Exploring the reasons for the skeptical attitude toward drone technology in hospitals, the study revealed that different priorities, lack of motivation, and budget constraints were mentioned as the three major obstacles to improving the situation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. OECD (2011) Health at a Glance 2011: OECD indicators, 1st edn. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  2. Porter ME, Teisberg, EO (2006) Redefining health care: creating value-based competition on results. Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, USA

    Google Scholar 

  3. Crane RM, Raymond B (2003) Fulfilling the potential of clinical information systems. Permanente J 7

    Google Scholar 

  4. Foreign Correspondent By Corcoran M (2017) Drone wars: The definition dogfight. Retrieved 25 Oct 2017, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-01/drone-wars-the-definition-dogfight/4546598

  5. 6 industries drones will disrupt in 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2017, from https://venturebeat.com/2017/04/02/5-industries-drones-will-disrupt-in-2017/

  6. Up in the air: a global estimate of non-violent drone use. Retrieved October 27, 2017, from https://digital.sandiego.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=gdl2016report

  7. Thiex-Kreye M, Klug E (2011) “Förderung der interprofessionellen und interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit: Wie kann die Organisationsform des Pflegedienstes beitrages?” In Krankenhausmanagement mit Zukunft: Orientierungswissen und Anregungen von Experten. 1st ed., edited by Andreas J. W. Goldschmidt and Josef Hilbert. Stuttgart, Germany: Thieme

    Google Scholar 

  8. Swiss post flies lab samples for hospitals by Drone. Retrieved October 25, 2017, from http://www.uasvision.com/2017/04/05/swiss-post-flies-lab-samples-for-hospitals-by-drone/

  9. Scott JE, Scott CH (2017) Drone delivery models in healthcare. In: Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii international conference on system sciences, pp 3297–3304

    Google Scholar 

  10. Preznuk D (2016) The drone age: a primer for individuals and the enterprise. Milton Chadwick & Waters Publishing Company, Haymarket, VA

    Google Scholar 

  11. A cost-benefit analysis of amazon prime air - UTC scholar. Retrieved October 22, 2017, from https://scholar.utc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=honors-theses

  12. French S (2017) Drone delivery is already here - and it works. Retrieved October 20, 2017, from http://www.marketwatch.com/story/drone-delivery-is-already-here-and-it-works-2015-11-30

  13. Drone laws in Switzerland. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from https://uavcoach.com/drone-laws-in-switzerland/

  14. Jacobsen M (2017) The promise of drones. Retrieved 25 Oct 2017, from http://hir.harvard.edu/the-promise-of-drones/

  15. Post DS (2017) Swiss post drone to fly laboratory samples for Ticino hospitals. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from https://www.post.ch/en/about-us/company/media/press-releases/2017/swiss-post-drone-to-fly-laboratory-samples-for-ticino-hospitals

  16. Matternet M2. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2017, from http://mttr.net/product

  17. Flirty. About. Retrieved October 19, from http://flirtey.com/about/

  18. EHANG official site-EHang announces development agreement with lung biotechnology to enable drone delivery of manufactured organs for transplant. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from http://www.ehang.com/news/135.html

  19. Khazan OA (2017) Drone to save the world. Retrieved October 25, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/04/a-drone-to-save-the-world/476592/

  20. Tilley A (2017) UPS experiments with drone delivery in partnership with Zipline. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2016/05/09/ups-experiments-with-drone-delivery-in-partnership-with-zipline/#517c772f45a4

  21. Markoff J (2017) Drones marshaled to drop lifesaving supplies over Rwandan Terrain. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/technology/drones-marshaled-to-drop-lifesaving-supplies-over-rwandan-terrain.html?_r=0

  22. Andrew E (2017) Ambulance drone could drastically increase heart attack survival. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/ambulance-drone-could-drastically-increase-heart-attack-survival/

  23. Muoio D (2017) Google is thinking about using drones to delivery emergency medical help. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/google-awarded-patent-for-emergency-medical-drones-2016-4

  24. Dragolea, N. 9 Drones that will revolutionise healthcare. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from http://www.doctorpreneurs.com/9-drones-that-will-revolutionise-healthcare/

  25. Saunders M, Lewis P, Thornhill, A (2007) Research methods for business students, 4th edn. Prentice-Hall, Harlow, UK

    Google Scholar 

  26. Mayer HO (2009) Interview und schriftliche Befragung: Entwicklung, Durchführung und Auswertung. Oldenbourg, München

    Google Scholar 

  27. Mayring P (2015) Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse: Grundlagen und Techniken. Beltz, Weinheim

    Google Scholar 

  28. Denzin Norman K (1970) The research act: a theoretical introduction to sociological methods. Aldine Transaction, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Google Scholar 

  29. BAG. Statistiken zur Krankenversicherung: Kennzahlen der Schweizer Spitäler 2008/2009. Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH). Bern: Bundesamt für Gesundheit Sektion Statistik und Mathematik, 2011. http://www.bag-anw.admin.ch, accessed August 2017

  30. Post DS (2017) Post plant Drohneneinsatz für den Tessiner Spitalverbund in Lugano. Retrieved June 14, 2017, from https://www.post.ch/de/ueber-uns/unternehmen/medien/medienmitteilungen/2017/post-plant-drohneneinsatz

  31. Mercer MM (2017) 22 Impressive ways drones are being used right now. Retrieved June 1, 2017, from http://www.techworld.com/picture-gallery/apps-wearables/best-uses-of-drones-in-business-3605145-3605145/

  32. Vanian J (2017) This drone just made the first legal delivery in an urban area. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from http://fortune.com/2016/03/25/flirtey-drone-legal-delivery-urban/

  33. Unmanned Cargo - Cargo delivery drones flying soon near you. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from http://unmannedcargo.org/cargo-delivery-drones/

  34. EHANG official site-EHANG 184 autonomous aerial vehicle. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from http://www.ehang.com/ehang184/

  35. Clark B (2017) Google’s drone delivery service is coming in 2017. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from https://thenextweb.com/google/2015/11/02/googles-drone-delivery-service-is-coming-in-2017/#.tnw_lINDvsOx

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mike Krey .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Krey, M. (2019). Cure for Health Care? Using Drone Technology in Hospital Processes—An Explorative Analysis. In: Yang, XS., Sherratt, S., Dey, N., Joshi, A. (eds) Third International Congress on Information and Communication Technology. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 797. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1165-9_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1165-9_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1164-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-1165-9

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics