LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- UPS has a new way of delivering medical samples to people who need it.
According to a news release, the logistics giant will begin using drones to transport medical samples in Releigh, North Carolina.
IMAGES | UPS launches drone service to deliver medical samples in Raleigh, NC
The company says the partnership with Matternet, an automated drone technology company, has been approved by the FAA. UPS is calling it, the "first FAA sanctioned use of a drone for routine revenue flights involving the transport of a product under a contractual delivery agreement."
According to the news release, it takes a drone 3 minutes and 15 seconds to fly medical samples from the WakeMed Raleigh Campus laboratory to the WakeMed Raleigh Medical Park clinic. The drone travels an average speed of 40 mph.
Conversely, it might take up to 30 minutes for a courier car, the more conventional means of transport, to deliver the samples.
The drone's aerial path enables it to provide, "an option for on-demand and same-day delivery, the ability to avoid roadway delays, increase medical delivery efficiency, lower costs and improve the patient experience with potentially life-saving benefits."
"Throughout the WakeMed program, a medical professional will load a secure drone container with a medical sample or specimen -- such as a blood sample -- at one of WakeMed's nearby facilities," the news release states. "The drone will fly along a predetermined flight path, monitored by a specially trained Remote Pilot-in-Command (RPIC), to a fixed landing pad at WakeMed's main hospital and central pathology lab."
Currently, the delivery system is only operating in Raleigh, but UPS says it hopes to adapt the program to be used at other hospitals and medical facilities across the U.S.
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