Soon, in Piedmont, the organs to be transplanted will arrive from the sky thanks to the drones of the Indoor project: the aim of the initiative is to start an experimentation to make the transfer of biological material and organs between Piedmontese hospitals faster and more effective, while maintaining quality and preservation and reducing transport time and costs. A similar project has already been started two years ago in the United States, in Maryland: a drone equipped with video cameras, security systems, parachute and GPS, flew for 5 km to transport from a hospital an organ explanted for transplant, planned in another facility.
"In transplant medicine, the transport of biological material and donor organs has an important role," said Professor Antonio Amoroso, Coordinator of the Regional Transplant Center of the Piedmont Region. "For each donation, approximately 150 each year in Piedmont and 1700 in Italy, blood samples from the potential donor need to be delivered as quickly as possible to the regional reference laboratories. In this project, we also aim to develop drone transport of kidneys to be transplanted. The possibility of experimenting with new transport solutions not only opens up interesting scenarios, but represents a challenge that we feel to undertake to increase the safety and quality of our interventions for the benefit of all patients waiting for a transplant".
The General Manager of Città della Salute dr. Giovanni La Valledeclared: “Our hospital is the first in Italy for the number of transplants and variety of programs. Every sector of Medicine, and even more so that of Transplantation, must continue to develop research and innovation. Collaborations with such accredited partners are therefore welcome to experiment with new transport solutions, currently applied for transplant medicine, but which may have extensive developments in other health sectors in the future ”.
