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Today’s Pickup: This drone could save your life

Deliveries of automated defibrillators by drone beat paramedics by seven minutes to simulated cardiac arrest patients during round of test flights in Canada.

Indro Robotics drones delivered defibrillators during test runs in Ontario, Canada. Photo: Indro Robotics

Good day,

Drones carrying automated defibrillators arrived at least seven minutes ahead of paramedics responding to simulated cardiac arrest patients during a recent round of test flights in Canada.

The flights took place on Sept. 21-22 in Renfrew County, Ontario. Operators flew drones from Indro Robotics beyond their line of sight in a 10-mile radius utilizing a 4G LTE cellular network. 

Drones arrived at least seven minutes ahead of paramedics in simulated responses to cardiac arrest victims. Photo: Indro Robotics

With a future delivery range of up to 80 miles, the drones could “have a transformative impact on emergency care for patients suffering cardiac arrest, especially those in remote private, residential or rural settings, where getting emergency treatment rapidly is the difference between life and death,” Renfrew County Paramedic Chief Michael Nolan said in a statement.


The drones utilized connectivity technology from Ericsson and Cradlepoint and shared live video and images with operators. Artificial intelligence aided in functions including collision avoidance. 

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Quotable:

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Final thoughts:

The success of defibrillator deliveries in Canada adds to growing efforts to use drones for critical medical uses from medical supplies to organs. A lot of finance providers are taking notice. 

In Africa, Zipline has made more than 20,000 deliveries of medical deliveries by drone to Rwanda and Ghana. The company has also raised millions of dollars and is valued at more than $1 billion.

Hammer down everyone!

Nate Tabak

Nate Tabak is a Toronto-based journalist and producer who covers cybersecurity and cross-border trucking and logistics for FreightWaves. He spent seven years reporting stories in the Balkans and Eastern Europe as a reporter, producer and editor based in Kosovo. He previously worked at newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the San Jose Mercury News. He graduated from UC Berkeley, where he studied the history of American policing. Contact Nate at ntabak@freightwaves.com.