FRASER LAKE—For those in rural communities, getting medical help is not easy. Often times, people are required to travel long distances to get the correct care they need. So a $750,000 project is looking to fix that.
Meet Sky Medic. A product of Drone Delivery Canada
The company partnering with UBC, Stellat’en First Nation, and the Village of Fraser Lake to help bring medical supplies to remote communities in Northern B.C. It’s a first-its-kind project in the province.
“The ability to just get things to far away places is something that we need to continue to endeavor, to improve on, and advocate for. At the beginning of the pandemic, some of the communities that we go, just getting a simple COVID swab was a monumental effort,” said Dr. John Pawlovich, Chair of Rural Health, UBC
“Drone technology has the ability to be able to get timely access, to be able to transport things more safely in a more timely manner, to ensure that more remote, rural, and Indigenous communities have more equitable access to health care services,” said Terri Aldred, Medical Director for Primary Care, First Nations Health Authority.
Sky Medic is a stepping stone for the province. Researchers want to be able to deliver supplies like blood samples for tests, and medical prescriptions.
But the sky isn’t the limit in this case.
Last month, the world’s first ever lung transplant by an unmanned drone in Ontario. Which is keeping this team optimistic in what the future holds for Sky Medic.
Sarrah Storey, mayor for the Village of Fraser Lake says that this project is exactly what’s needed.
UBC is gonna spend the next twelve months testing out the limitations of the drone such as how much weight it can carry and how it can fly in certain weather conditions.
Afterwards, researchers will see how it can be integrated into the medical field.
