ICMR efficiently checks drone-based cornea transport to assist eye care

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The Indian Council of Medical Analysis (ICMR), in collaboration with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi and Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital, in an initiative supported by the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation has efficiently carried out a feasibility research to evaluate the potential of utilizing drones to move delicate ophthalmic biomaterials, together with human corneas and amniotic membrane grafts from peripheral assortment centres to tertiary hospitals for transplantation procedures, in Haryana’s Sonipat and Jhajjar on Tuesday (March 25, 2025).

The drone efficiently transported corneal tissue from Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital (Sonipat centre) to the Nationwide Most cancers Institute (NCI), AIIMS Jhajjar, and subsequently to AIIMS New Delhi, a distance that often takes about two-and-a-half-hours by street and was coated in 40 minutes with drones. The drone maintained optimum circumstances for specimen integrity and the cornea was evaluated upon arrival, resulting in a profitable transplant surgical procedure.

Over the previous few years, ICMR’s i-DRONE initiative has demonstrated the profitable use of drones to ship important medical provides, together with to States in northeast India (COVID-19 and Common Immunisation Programme or UIP vaccines, drugs, and surgical supplies), Himachal Pradesh (drugs and samples in excessive altitude and sub-zero temperatures), Telangana (TB sputum samples), and the Nationwide Capital Area (blood luggage and associated parts). These efforts spotlight the rising functionality and promise of drones in bridging the final mile healthcare hole.

Talking of the profitable deployment of drones, Rajiv Bahl, Secretary, Division of Well being Analysis, and Director Normal, ICMR, stated that the i-DRONE platform was initially conceived throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to ship vaccines to distant areas. 

“Since then, now we have scaled our efforts to incorporate low-temperature supply of blood merchandise and important medicines to high-altitude and sub-zero [temperature] places. This cornea transport research marks one other step ahead — enhancing affected person entry, making certain well timed transplants, and lowering stress on overburdened tertiary hospitals,’’ Dr. Bahl stated.

The Central authorities has additionally maintained that drones are rising as gamechangers in healthcare logistics, providing speedy supply of life-saving medical provides to distant and hard-to-reach areas.

The well timed transportation of corneal tissues is important because the viability of donated corneas is time-sensitive. Delays in transportation can compromise tissue high quality and scale back the possibilities of profitable transplantation. Drone-based transport provides a swift, temperature-stable, and environment friendly various to conventional street networks, which are sometimes sluggish or unpredictable, particularly in semi-urban or rural areas. This may help bridge the hole between donor websites and recipients, making certain that no viable tissue goes unused, and that extra sufferers regain sight in time.

Piyush Srivastava, Further Secretary and Senior Financial Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation, stated the collaboration between well being and aviation sectors is an inspiring instance of tech-enabled social impression. “Drones supply a scalable resolution for well timed medical supply in geographically difficult areas,’’ Mr. Srivastava stated.

M. Srinivas, Director, AIIMS, New Delhi stated that corneal blindness impacts hundreds of thousands in India, and well timed availability of donor tissue is usually a limiting issue. “This drone-based transport mannequin may very well be a transformative step towards making certain equitable entry to vision-restoring surgical procedures, particularly in underserved areas. The success of this pilot venture opens the door to deploying precision drone logistics for a variety of important medical functions,” Dr. Srinivas stated.