Drones could be used to fly patient pathology samples from Moreton Bay island communities to Brisbane testing labs as early as next year.
Brisbane's Mater Hospital on Tuesday announced a partnership program with drone company Swoop Aero that will see a fleet of drones used to shuttle patient pathology samples from areas across Moreton Bay to the hospital's testing labs at Springfield in Ipswich.
Mater Pathology general manager Deb Hornsby said the initiative was an "Australian first" and would slash waiting times for test results, particularly blood samples and COVID-19 swabs.
"It is a game-changer, it will take pathology services to a different level – we're the first pathology service in Australia to offer this," Ms Hornsby said.
"Right now, we are reliant on ferry terminals and courier pick ups to get samples back to Mater for testing from Stradbroke Island and the other islands.
"Depending on ferry services, it can take up to six hours.
"Pathology is a time-sensitive service … turnaround times are really critical to get those results back to GPs [general practitioners] and specialists."
She said a 45-minute drive would now become a 15-minute flight.
Drone fleet to carry hundreds of samples
It is estimated the drone system will pick up and deliver about 80,000 pathology samples a year from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service patients on Stradbroke Island, as well as other patients across Russell Island, Macleay Island, the Redlands and Hope Island on the Gold Coast.
Swoop Aero chief commercial officer Sabrina Ravail said the Mater Hospital approached the company last year when there was a huge increase in COVID testing.
Mater Pathology conducted three million pathology tests last year and did more than 2,500 COVID tests a day.
"The pressures on the health system were … high and pathology samples took a long time to be delivered," Ms Ravail said.
"We were looking at how pathology samples can be delivered faster, more efficiently and more safely to communities – slashing deliveries that can be six hours to 50 minutes by drone."
"We'll start with a fleet of 10 for this area to cover eventually a scale of 400,000 square kilometres and impact 3.6 million people across south-east Queensland."
The fleet will travel distances of more than 175kms on a single battery charge across south-east Queensland, carrying more than 4 kilograms of medical cargo — equivalent to hundreds of pathology samples.
Drone delivery of aged care medications
Ms Hornsby said discussions were "already underway" to use the drones for other health services.
"For example, delivery of medications to many of our sites, particularly aged care facilities," she said.
Mater and Swoop Aero are waiting on the result of their application to the federal government for an Emerging Aviation Technology Partnership (EATP) grant to help fund the project.
However, Ms Ravail said she was "confident" it would be approved, as Swoop Aero already runs a similar operation in southern Queensland, flying pharmacy medicines to remote patients in Goondiwindi.
Mater Director of Innovation Dr Maree Knight said the drones would "definitely" be operational by next year.
"This is a great opportunity to free up our health workforce to do the stuff they do best, which is caring for people," she said.
Swoop Aero drones operate well below commercial aircraft altitudes and flight path approvals must be obtained from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
"We've delivered over a million items by drone … our aircraft is flying in the United Kingdom, Singapore, parts of Africa, in Malawi," Ms Ravail said.
"We work very closely with regulators to ensure we work within the bounds of what is safe.
"[In terms of privacy], we don't hold data, we don't film people – that's not something we will be doing."
