ICMR Successfully Conducts Trial Run Of Blood Bag Delivery Under i-Drone Initiative

New Delhi: Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) under the Union Health Ministry today successfully conducted a trial run of blood bag delivery by drones under its i-Drone initiative in New Delhi.

The inaugural trial flight carried ten units of blood samples from the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS), Greater Noida and Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC), New Delhi. The trial run has been undertaken for the first time in the country by the collaborative efforts of ICMR, LHMC, GIMS and Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (JIIT), Noida.

Highlighting the significance of the successful trial run, the Director General of ICMR Dr Rajiv Bahl said that the boost of technology is an accelerator which is gradually pushing India towards achieving the status of being a developed nation as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He emphasized that ‘i-DRONE’ was first used during covid19 pandemic by ICMR for distributing vaccines to unreachable areas.

Dr Bahl said that today, we transported blood and blood-related products, which are supposed to be kept at a low temperature. He added that another sample has been sent through an ambulance and if there are no differences in the samples sent using the two modes, then this drone will be used all over India.

The Health Ministry said that LHMC and GIMS are included as centres for supplying blood bags and testing the samples, while JIIT is acting as the implementation centre for drone sorties.