Prospective use of unmanned aerial vehicles for military medical evacuation in future conflicts

Author:

Handford Charles,Reeves F,Parker P

Abstract

In order to continue to deliver outstanding medical care on the battlefield, the UK Defence Medical Services must continue to adapt, overcome and actively embrace change. One potential area is the rapid proliferation and sophistication of automated and remote systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). UAVs are already used to deliver blood to remote military locations in Afghanistan and defibrillators to those that need them in the USA and Sweden. An area of future opportunity would be to facilitate rapid evacuation of wounded personnel from high intensity, high threat, remote and austere areas directly to specialist care. Such a capability would reduce threat to human life while allowing rapid extraction of casualties from high risk or inaccessible environments straight back to Role 3 care, all of which in these situations is either not possible or carries too much risk using conventional aerial assets. The article aims to highlight a potential future capability, stimulate debate and reflection, all of which is essential for innovation and future organisational development. The potential uses and benefits of UAVs are highlighted including both the challenges and rewards of utilising UAVs for casualty evacuation. Key benefits are reduced risk to human life, cost, ability to insert into areas conventional aircraft cannot and the rapidity of transfer. Challenges are likely to be airspace management, decisions on appropriate level of care to deliver during transit and ultimately user acceptability. The article also highlights that in order to maximise our ability to exploit new technologies, all arms and trades within the military must be involved in collective research and development. Furthermore, sensible corroboration with private companies will further enhance our ability to acquire products that best serve our needs.

Publisher

BMJ

Subject

General Medicine

Reference15 articles.

1. Ministry of Defence. Strategic trends programme; the future operating environment 2035. 16, 2015.

2. McLean W . Drones are cheap, soldiers are not: a cost-benefit analysis of war. The Conversation, The Conversation US, Inc. 2014;25 http://theconversation.com/drones-are-cheap-soldiers-are-not-a-cost-benefit-analysis-of-war-27924

3. Unmanned military aircraft; attack of the drones. 2009 The Economist, Technology Quarterly. http://www.economist.com/node/14299496 (accessed Oct 2017).

4. International Air Transport Association. Safety report 2016. 53rd Edition, 2017. http://www.iata.org/docx/IATA-Safety-Report-2016-2.pdf (accessed Oct 2017).

5. Analysis of fatal human error aircraft accidents in IAF;Kumar;Ind J Aerospace Med,2003

Cited by 19 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Can drones be a solution for defibrillation and blood transfusions? A review on the impact of new technologies in emergency healthcare;Frontiers in Disaster and Emergency Medicine;2024-03-08

2. Unmanned aerial vehicles and pre-hospital emergency medicine;Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine;2024-01-29

3. Comparison Between Boundary Color Method and Haar Cascade Classifier Applied on Sheep Detection and Quantification on a Live Video Streaming for a Quadcopter UAV;Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems;2024

4. Feasibility of Organ Transportation by a Drone: An Experimental Study Using a Rat Model;Transplantation Proceedings;2023-11

5. A New Way of Improving Network by Smart IoE with UAV;2023 International Conference on Computational Intelligence, Communication Technology and Networking (CICTN);2023-04-20

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3