Drone and Telemedicine

This article discusses the benefits of using drones in telemedicine systems and proposes a new workflow for a drone-based telehealth system. It also provides a budget plan for implementing the proposed system. The existing flaws of telemedicine systems and the limitations of traditional medication collection processes are highlighted, and the use of drones for delivering medication to remote areas is suggested. The article emphasizes the potential of drone-based telemedicine in improving healthcare services and increasing efficiency.

Running head: DRONE TELEMEDICINE 1
Drone and Telemedicine
Fahad Noshili
University of San Diego
HCIN-554-01-SP19 Telehealth and Emerging Technology
M. Kurliand, MS BSN RN

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DRONE TELEMEDICINE
Table of Contents
Background and assessment.......................................................................................................3
Proposal......................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5
Appendix A............................................................................................................................6
Appendix B............................................................................................................................7
Appendix C............................................................................................................................8

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Drone and Telehealth
Telemedicine systems are technologies that allow remote or virtual care of the patient,
allowing for a clinical diagnosis and prescriptions if needed through utilising the advanced
telecommunication technology. (Lee et al., 2015). Using drone as a strategic advancement of
telemedicine system could be very beneficial. Workflow analysis involves the systematic
visual representation of synchronised operations as intermediate and interconnected phases of
a large operational system (see Appendix A). In this paper, the existing workflow system of a
telehealth system will be assessed and a new recommendation for a drone-based telehealth
system will be presented along with a budget (see Appendix C).
Background and Assessment
Existing telehealth systems depends on two types of sub systems, namely
telemedicine and tele-diagnosis. Several surveys based primary researches have clearly found
that many flaws of the existing Telemedicine system are restricting the growth of the
consumer base (Dinesen et al., 2016). One of the major limitations of existing Telehealth
services is, in this system a consumer needs to visit the nearest medicine shop to have the
prescribed medicine, which creates an additional burden for the patient (Schwamm, 2014).
patients do not always pick up their medications and describe the impact of not taking meds
as prescribed on their health outcomes. Another problem is that is that patients do not have
transportation or are home bound and some of these medications especially antibiotics and
blood pressure medications need to be taken as soon as possible. It increases the total waiting
time for having a complete healthcare service with proper medication. A change in the
existing workflow is required to make the medication acquiring process ease for the patient
Proposal
To increase the efficiency two changes will be made in the existing system. The
purpose of this proposal is to minimise the time required to provide tele-health service,

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through assigning experts in the system and using drone for delivering the required medicine
to the consumer. In this process the purpose of the drone is to deliver the medication within
hours with a drone. Especially to patients that live in rural communities or hard to reach
places. In the recommended workflow model, a clinician will be assigned in new process who
will communicate with the consumer after completing the payment. The clinician will also
control the drone for any emergency medication delivery (see Appendix B). After having the
digital prescription from doctor the geographic location of the consumer will be determined
and a drone with an attached, portable, real-time health monitoring device will be sent to that
particular location from the nearest health drone hub. After delivering the medicines to the
target consumer, the drone will be returned under the online guidance of clinical officer.
Apart from that, the mounted digital camera on the drone will also transfer a high-quality
digital image of the wounds or infection to the physician (Keck & Doarn, 2014).
Conclusion
It has been found that due to lengthy and sometimes complex medication collection
process makes the overall efficiency of the telemedicine process weak. This proposal
introduces drone based telemedicine that not only will reduce the time required to get
medicine from local drug store, but also it could deliver the medicine to the remote place
where, patient does not have have access or unable to reach medicinal dispensary. It will
increase the telemedicine efficiency and service quality while equally uplift the overall
healthcare service providing concept.

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References
Dinesen, B., Nonnecke, B., Lindeman, D., Toft, E., Kidholm, K., Jethwani, K.,...Gutierrez,
M. (2016). Personalized telehealth in the future: a global research agenda. Journal of
Medical Internet Research, 18(3), e53.
Keck, C. S., & Doarn, C. R. (2014). Telehealth technology applications in speech-language
pathology. Telemedicine and e-Health, 20(7), 653-659.
Lee, J. F., Schieltz, K. M., Suess, A. N., Wacker, D. P., Romani, P. W., Lindgren, S.
D.,...Dalmau, Y. C. P. (2015). Guidelines for developing telehealth services and
troubleshooting problems with telehealth technology when coaching parents to
conduct functional analyses and functional communication training in their
homes. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 8(2), 190-200.
Schwamm, L. H. (2014). Telehealth: Seven strategies to successfully implement disruptive
technology and transform health care. Health Affairs, 33(2), 200-206.

Call centre
executive
Patient call Payment
procedure
If patient has clinical report Making
appointment
Digital report
collection
Doctor’s
encounter
Any External Diagnosis requiredReferring patient to
external diagnosis
centre
E-prescription
development
Billing
Sending digital document to patient
Waiting in
queue
External diagnosis
Yes
No
Yes No
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Appendix A
Existing E-Health Workflow

Call centre
executive
Patient call Payment
procedure
If patient has clinical port
Clinical
officer refer to
the specialist
Digital report
collection
Doctor’s
encounter
Any laboratory requirement
Referring patient to
external diagnosis
centre
Sending Portable
health monitoring
Drone to the client
from the hub
Billing
Sending digital document to patient
Waiting in
queue
External diagnosis
Yes
No
Yes No
Referring call to
clinical officer
Assessment and
prescription
Real time E-health
monitoring
Returning of the
Drone to the hub
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Appendix B
Recommended E-Health Workflow

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Appendix C
Budget Plan for Recommended Workflow.
Unit Average cost per unit Expense
Technological requirements
IT consultation 1 $12,000 $12,000
Procuring and setting up drones 15 $7,200 $108,000
Portable hardware instalment and integration 12 $1,200 $14,400
Setting up drone hubs 10 $8,500 $85,000
Software installation 4 $1,500 $6,000
Testing 3 $2,500 $7,500
Total $232,900
Human resource requirements
Training existing employees 22 $450 $9,900
Recruiting clinical officers 6 $650 $3,900
Payroll 28 $43,000 $1,204,000
Compliance 28 $35,000 $980,000
Total $2,197,800
Ongoing expenditures
Networking system 5 $2,500 $12,500
Marketing and advertisement 30 $750 $22,500
Operational consultation 1 $3,200 $3,200
Total $38,200
Total expenditures $2,468,900