A drone delivery service designed to help transport medical samples and medication will start its test flights this month along the Interstate 44 corridor between Springfield and St. Louis.
The Missouri Rural Health Care Drone Project is a collaboration among Valkyrie UAS Solutions, Missouri University of Science and Technology, and Mid-American Transplant.
The startup's first step will be to gain approval from medical providers to transport blood and tissue samples that can speed up the process of assessing matches for organ donations. Reducing that time can help get organs to patients in need faster.
That is just the first step, according to Valkyrie UAS Solutions co-founder Ty Harmon.
"We have an opportunity to transform rural health care," he said. "We can deliver life-saving care to communities that desperately need it."
The drone with an 8-foot wingspan can travel upward of 100 mph about 350 feet off the ground, transporting a payload of up to 12 pounds.
Medical leaders are already looking to additional uses for the technology, especially in rural areas.
"A cancer patient who needs infusions – imagine instead of them having to travel two or three hours to get to the cancer center that we can fly those medications out to them," said Lori Worthington, executive director of the Joplin Regional Alliance for Health Care. "They can be administered at their primary care office, that's close to home."
Valkyrie UAS Solutions is renting space for its operation from Missouri S&T, has three full-time employees onsite and is looking to hire two pilots and six interns in the coming months.
The company's ambitious plans include manufacturing the drones used for medical transport, and that could be in Missouri, possibly in Rolla.
That idea has local officials excited about the economic impact.
"This partnership creates opportunities for new jobs," said Rolla City Administrator Keith Riesberg, "and the investments in the community serve as a launch pad for future opportunities."
The first step is for the drones to make numerous test flights equipped with sensors to show hospitals the technology will work. Once those are complete, Valkyrie will look to get 10,000 hours of flight time using the drones for additional Federal Aviation Administration permissions.
"We think it won't take long to have six drones based in Rolla, doing a total of six round trips per day supporting this area," Harmon said, "which is 100 miles in any direction. We can support 172 rural health care clinics."
Harmon said the company is looking to access some of Missouri's share of the federal Rural Health Transformation Program Congress passed last year to help pay for the program in the coming years.
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