Accra, May 2, 2018//-Ghana is racing to join the league of medical drone technology countries to enable it to provide a secure, reliable and timely deliveries of essential healthcare products to hospitals and other health facilities across the country.
In this regard, Ghana’s Ministry of Health has signed a Letter of Intent with the developer and operator of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, popularly known as drones, to offer a drone-enabled supply chain solution in Ghana.
According to officials, Ghana will become the first country in West Africa, and the largest in the world, to use such a delivery system when it is fully deployed.
The service, according to senior government officials would be designed, installed and operated by USA-based Zipline International Inc. in partnership with the Ghana Health Service.
The country will leverage the technology to improve the supply chain of critical medical supplies, reduce waste and save lives.
A Deputy Minister of Health, Tina Mensah, signed on behalf of Ghana while Keller Rinaudo, CEO of Zipline, signed for his company in Accra recently, in the presence of Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who has championed the governmental effort to ensure the use of innovation and technology in public service delivery.
Zipline was one of the many companies with cutting-edge technology who met and held discussions with the Vice President and the founders and leaders of a number of Ghanaian ICT firms a few weeks ago during Dr Bawumia’s working visit to Silicon Valley, California, USA.
A number of companies based in the ICT hub of Silicon Valley have also indicated their readiness to explore partnership opportunities with their Ghanaian counterparts after the trip to design and implement Ghanaian solutions for Ghanaian challenges.
Speaking earlier in the day at the 2018 edition of the Ministry of Health and Partners Health Summit, H.E. Dr Mahamudu Bawumia had indicated that government was exploring innovative ways, including the use of drone technology, to make universal health care available to every Ghanaian in a timely manner irrespective of location.
The system can also be employed to deliver other items such as urgent letters, examination papers and election materials such as ballot papers, officials maintain.
Addressing the media after the brief signing ceremony, which was witnessed by officials from the National Blood Bank, Ghana Post and Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Hon Tina Mensah extolled the virtues of such a system for efficient health care delivery.
“Very soon we will be seeing some drones flying to hitherto hard to reach areas of this country and thereby we will be saving lives. It will have so many uses. For example, when there is an accident somewhere, instead of transporting essential healthcare products by vehicle which would take a lot more time, the drones can just deliver within the shortest possible time, so lives could be saved.”
The Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, recounted how this technology has helped in the healthcare delivery systems in Rwanda to the admiration of the global medical field and was optimistic its introduction in Ghana will improve the performance of the GHS.
He called for speedy implementation of the technology for efficient healthcare delivery. Meanwhile, the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority has pledged to create an air corridor for drones to prevent collisions with aeroplane and other larger aircraft.
Globally, experts said disruptive health technologies can save millions of lives in the developing world since they are creative, reliable, easy-to-use and cheap.
A research published in 2016 led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Centre suggests the same. Using drones would also improve vaccination rates, it added.
Currently, Doctors Without Borders used drones in Papua New Guinea to transport dummy TB test samples from a remote village to the large coastal city of Kerema. While in Madagascar, with the support of the government and USAID, these small flying vehicles were also able to collect some medical samples from remote villages in the rural area of the country for the first time in 2016.
Drones are also currently being tested for medical supply deliveries in rural Virginia and Bhutan. UNICEF is testing the feasibility of using them to transport lab samples in Malawi. And in Tanzania, there are efforts afoot to transport blood and essential medications, according to medicalfuturist.com.
One of the finest examples on the market is the Silicon Valley start-up, Zipline. In 2016, the Rwandan government teamed up with the company to deliver medical supplies to five of its hospitals.
Within a year, they plan to expand the program to nearly half of the country’s 45 hospitals. The drones will make up to 150 deliveries a day – and reduce the previously 4-hour-long delivery to 15 minutes!
The medicalfuturist.com noted that within minutes, a drone is launched into the sky racing at 100 km/h. The medical products are then dropped off, landing gently and accurately at the health facility in an open area the size of a few parking spaces.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
