Accelerating Healthcare Delivery with Drones

At an incredible speed, hundreds of primary healthcare facilities, healthcare institutions and private homes are receiving medical supplies delivered by drones in Ghana. This revolution in healthcare delivery is on its way to Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria as Cross River and Kaduna are the flagship states for this innovation in healthcare delivery. Yinka Olatunbosun reports on the operation of these life-saving drones at the Zipline Distribution Centre in Omenako, Ghana

“Spinning motors…3, 2, 1” was the announcement from the drone launcher and the journalists watched in awe. The drone would deliver in five minutes to the designated health care facility in need of the packaged medical supplies. The drone flies approximately 101km per hour and can fly up to 100km round trip on a single battery. The two-metre long drone usually has another battery as backup. 60 of those deliveries happen on a daily basis at the facility in Omenako, Ghana.

This innovation in healthcare delivery system is the brainchild of Zipline- rated as the world’s only last-mile aerial logistics company delivering medical commodities. Zipline is an American medical product delivery company with headquarters in South San Francisco, California that designs, manufactures, and operates delivery drones. The company operates distribution centres in Rwanda, Ghana, and the US and has an academy where professionals such as pharmacist, biochemists and engineers are trained on aspects of their operations. As of February 2021, Zipline drones have flown more than 4 million miles and made nearly 400,000 deliveries in the last five years.

Mission

With a mission to provide every human with instant access to vital medical supplies, Zipline began this movement in Africa since 2016, starting with Rwanda and then Ghana. Delivering services to over 3,600 facilities from the current 13 hubs across the continent, Zipline has gained its altitude from helping to reduce the rates of avoidable deaths.
It is very rampant to hear that someone died because there was no blood pint within reach or there was delay in accessing a particular drug. Usually, emergencies are reflective of the preparedness of any given healthcare system that is created to save lives. Hence, Zipline’s drone services became a necessity in the rapid and efficient delivery of emergency product, providing timely stock-gap resupplies and disaster response, powered by a reliable distribution system for remote and underserved communities. Zipline warehouse is built as an effective storage system for perishable medical products like blood which can only be stored for 42 days.

Fore Gleam

A walk through the warehouse was conducted with the journalists from Nigeria who came to witness first-hand the operations of Zipline Ghana Limited as a fore gleam of Zipline in Nigeria. Nestled in the thick bush was the Zipline Distribution Centre in Omenako, about an hour drive from the city of Accra.
The previous day, Senior Vice President for Africa, Zipline, Daniel Marfo had received the journalists with a brief presentation and a documentary to showcase how the life-saving drones function.
“Technology has opened the door to new possibilities-being able to connect with a doctor through your phone and now receiving delivery of your medications at your doorstep via drone. This partnership could lead the way in defining what instant decentralized service delivery will look like globally,’’ he declared.
He further revealed that Zipline would start delivering COVID-19 vaccines, pharmaceuticals, blood plasma and more to Kaduna and Cross River states.
“We want to make sure that lives are not lost through logistical impediments. We want to deliver drugs, blood to people during emergencies like snake bites for instance,’’ he said. With that piece of good news, the journalists were buoyed up, ready to tour the facility the next day.

Unzipping Zipline

Most shops in Ghana were yet to open by the time the team set out on the journey to Omenako. On arrival, their feet were clad in protective blue covers before access was granted into the maze of medical supplies. Like commercial flights operations, Zipline drones are housed at the drone port which is a critical component of every hub. Each hub contains the warehouse and the drone port. The warehouse parades the best in-class inventory management including specialized storage equipment and flight controls. The drone post comprises the office and backup systems, flight area, launcher and drone recovery area.

But unlike airplanes, the drones do not land. They simply drop off the deliverable and return to the drone port. The drones fly on predetermined routes and stay on their flight path using GPS under the monitoring eyes of Zipline staff.

While journalists were curious as to the safety of the medical supplies when dropped by the drone, the Performance Operation Lead, Florence Haruna explained how each package is protected during the flight.
“Our packages are wrapped in a parachute. Once the drone gets to the facility, it decreases its height to about 30 feet and with the aid of the parachute, the package falls in a controlled manner. A wrapping paper is padded to protect the products and beyond this, we have something that serves a s a shock absorber when the package falls on the landing area.

“With all the safety features, there is a parachute that allows the product to fall without damaging. We have a product validation team that is responsible for validating every product that we fly out. We do several drops of the package and then we eliminate packing procedure that will cause breakages. During the tests, we discover breakages and we eliminate that packaging procedure and then do proper simulations and take out the best packaging procedure,’’ she revealed.

She walked past the refrigerating units, explaining how blood products are stored and Zipline’s intervention in the current COVID-19 pandemic.

“We recently started flying the COVID-19 vaccines. We came up with a packaging procedure that kept the product intact. We did the validation and were able to fly over five hundred and forty packages to them without breakages,’’ she said.

The Zipline distribution centre in the Northern part of Ghana executes between 130 and 150 deliveries per day. A package weighs about 1.75kg. Some routine checks are carried out on a daily basis while some on a weekly basis to ensure best air travel practices.

“The drone has its in-built parachute so that if there is an error it can come down by itself. And we have sensitized the community where the drones operate so that they are not alarmed. That is an integral part of our service. We recover all our drones,’’ she said.

Medical products are safety stored at each Zipline hub to ensure that they are readily available at health facilities, thus promoting patient trust in the healthcare system which in turn influences healthcare utilisation. The facility has high safety and maintenance culture, that makes drones consistent and reliable in strong winds, heavy rain and high temperatures and deliver virtually any medication including prescriptions, cold chain and infusions.

However, windy conditions might just make a package move slightly from its usual target but not beyond the mapped out landing area as we soon discovered. The sound of the approaching drone cut through the serenity of the lush garden in front of the primary healthcare centre some kilometres away from the hub.

“As a result of this drone delivery services, we have more patients because we don’t run out of drugs. Instead of writing the drugs for them to go and buy, Zipline delivers it at no cost,’’ Frank Klomlawunu Deputy Chief Physician at the Apedwa Health Centre said after a drone delivered a package at the facility. The cost of delivery had been covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana. The Zipline intervention has made it possible to save no less than 600 Cedis every month at the facility.

Why Nigeria Needs Drone Delivery Services

The World Health Organisation defines access to medicine as a priority for citizens. It must be available at all times in adequate amounts, in appropriate dosage and quality an at an affordable price for individuals and communities. It is estimated that two billion people do not have access to medicines and four million lives per year could be saved in Africa and Southeast Asia with improved access to medicine.

In Nigeria, challenges that beset the supply chain for medical supplies include inadequate forecasting, insufficient funds, limited use of technology solutions, poor road infrastructure, insecurity and availability of vehicles.

It is against this backdrop that the Zipline aerial logistics brings reduction in overall supply chain expenses, reliable cold chain infrastructure, 95 per cent wastage reduction due to reduction in expiries and optimisation of safety stock and good distribution practices.

Samuel Timothy, a Performance Operations Lead, trained pharmacist and a Nigerian from Kaduna state, who was part of the team that set up the KD1 hub in Kaduna state explained why Nigeria is in dire need of Zipline drones to fast track access to medicine.

“People have incidents of post-partum hemorrhage. A woman just got delivered and the nearest facility could be two hour-drive away. But in just 25 minutes, a drone could reach her. Yesterday, we still had the incident of a snake bite about 7pm and I was able to attend to that. There is no cost to human life,’’ he said.

Considerations for Flying Drones

There are several pre-conditions for flying any drone to avoid any counter-productivity. The wind direction and wind limit are some of the factors that are considered. Also, there are legal expectations that must be met to be able to operate. The Communications Consultant, Komla Buami who led the team to a nearby healthcare facility that took delivery of a package dropped by a Zipline drone explained why there was a little delay in the flight.
“We wait for air clearance to fly. The military is doing some operations around the area so once they finish, then we can fly,’’ he said.

Airspace authorities in the countries of operations have their flight schedule recorded and monitored which explains why there is no chance that a drone would collide with an airplane.