To beat Bengaluru’s infamous traffic, Narayana Health has started using drones to fly patient samples to its main lab. These drones, developed by a company called Airbound, cover the 4 km distance from Chandapura to Electronic City in just 10 minutes.
Bengaluru: Narayana Health has found a high-tech solution to Bengaluru’s traffic problem. The hospital group has started using drones to transport patient health samples from its clinics to the main laboratory.
Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty, the founder of Narayana Health, announced this at a press conference on Tuesday. He explained that the drones, developed by the company Airbound, can fly samples from the Narayana Health clinic in Chandapura to the central lab in Narayana Health City, Electronic City, in under 10 minutes. The distance is about 4 kilometres—a journey that can easily take much longer by road.
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Drone Delivery
This isn’t just a one-off test. The service has been in a trial phase for the last two months, with drones making over 700 flights carrying up to 40 samples at a time. Dr. Shetty also mentioned that they plan to expand this service to the Banashankari and Electronic City route in the future.
Naman Pushp, the founder of Airbound, pointed out the obvious advantage. “Transporting samples through the city’s traffic takes a lot of time. But with a drone, we can get it done in just a few minutes,” he said.
Here are the specifics: The drone itself weighs 1.5 kg and can carry a 1 kg payload of samples. It flies at an altitude of 120 feet and is operated by Airbound’s staff. For now, the service only runs during the daytime.
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