Drones - Organ Transport

In the USA, the number of lung transplants/year doubled from 23000 in the year 2000 to 46632 in 2023¹

What drove the growth?

• Policy changes
• Advancements in medical technology
  • Transport containers that can pump blood and oxygen to organs to maximize lifespan - time extended from 6-hour standard limit

What are the challenges now?

• The increased demand for organ transplants needs more vehicles and drivers to transport them in limited time
• Currently, conventional aircraft, helicopters, and ground vehicles do the transport work

What companies/universities are working on this?

• BETA Technologies, Vermont
  • Electric ALIA air taxis² - United Therapeutics is requesting the ALIA drones for lung transport
    • ALIA drones are fixed-wing drones - Resistant to bad weather
• Unither Biotechnologies, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics
• Longitude Mobility - Advises aviation companies on transporting human organs
• Unither Bioelectronics - In 2021, a lung was transported from end-to-end using a drone³

Footnotes

1. https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/electric-drones-and-air-taxis-target-the-logistical-frustration-of-transporting-organs-for-transplants/#:~:text=He%20notes%20that%20experiments%20have,organs%20were%20implanted%20in%20patients. ↩

2. https://www.beta.team/aircraft/ ↩

3. https://www.unither.aero/en/a-breath-in-the-sky ↩