Human drone interaction in delivery of medical supplies: A scoping review of experimental studies.

<h4>Background</h4>The COVID-19 pandemic, ageing populations and the increasing shortage of skilled workers pose great challenges for the delivery of supplies for people with and without care needs. The potential of drones, as unmanned air vehicles, in healthcare are huge and are discuss...

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Main Authors: Franziska Stephan, Nicole Reinsperger, Martin Grünthal, Denny Paulicke, Patrick Jahn
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2022-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0267664&type=printable
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author Franziska Stephan
Nicole Reinsperger
Martin Grünthal
Denny Paulicke
Patrick Jahn
author_facet Franziska Stephan
Nicole Reinsperger
Martin Grünthal
Denny Paulicke
Patrick Jahn
author_sort Franziska Stephan
collection DOAJ
description <h4>Background</h4>The COVID-19 pandemic, ageing populations and the increasing shortage of skilled workers pose great challenges for the delivery of supplies for people with and without care needs. The potential of drones, as unmanned air vehicles, in healthcare are huge and are discussed as an effective new way to delivery urgent medicines and medical devices, especially in rural areas. Although the advantages are obvious, perspectives of users are important particularly in the development process. Investigating human drone interaction could potentially increase usefulness and usability. The present study aims to perform a systematic scoping review on experimental studies examining the human drone interaction in deliveries of drugs and defibrillators.<h4>Methods</h4>Two databases (MEDLINE and CINAHL) and references of identified publications were searched without narrowing the year of publication or language. Studies that investigated the human drone interaction or medical delivery with drones in an experimental manner were included (research articles). All studies that only simulated the delivery process were excluded.<h4>Results</h4>The search revealed 83 publications with four studies being included. These studies investigated the user experience of drone delivered defibrillators, but no study was identified that investigated the human drone interaction in the delivery of drugs. Three categories of human drone interaction were identified: landing, handover, and communications. Regarding landing and handover, the most important issue was the direct physical contact with the drone while regarding communications users need clearer instructions about drone´s direction, sound and look like.<h4>Discussion</h4>The identified studies used technology-driven approaches by investigating human drone interaction in already existing technologies. Users must become integral part of the whole development process of medical drone services to reduce concerns, and to improve security, usability and usefulness of the system. Human drone interaction should be developed according to the identified categories of human drone interaction by using demand- and technology-driven approaches.
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spelling doaj-art-d3e9901ac092451fa8334f27d82a9db12025-02-05T05:32:53ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032022-01-01174e026766410.1371/journal.pone.0267664Human drone interaction in delivery of medical supplies: A scoping review of experimental studies.Franziska StephanNicole ReinspergerMartin GrünthalDenny PaulickePatrick Jahn<h4>Background</h4>The COVID-19 pandemic, ageing populations and the increasing shortage of skilled workers pose great challenges for the delivery of supplies for people with and without care needs. The potential of drones, as unmanned air vehicles, in healthcare are huge and are discussed as an effective new way to delivery urgent medicines and medical devices, especially in rural areas. Although the advantages are obvious, perspectives of users are important particularly in the development process. Investigating human drone interaction could potentially increase usefulness and usability. The present study aims to perform a systematic scoping review on experimental studies examining the human drone interaction in deliveries of drugs and defibrillators.<h4>Methods</h4>Two databases (MEDLINE and CINAHL) and references of identified publications were searched without narrowing the year of publication or language. Studies that investigated the human drone interaction or medical delivery with drones in an experimental manner were included (research articles). All studies that only simulated the delivery process were excluded.<h4>Results</h4>The search revealed 83 publications with four studies being included. These studies investigated the user experience of drone delivered defibrillators, but no study was identified that investigated the human drone interaction in the delivery of drugs. Three categories of human drone interaction were identified: landing, handover, and communications. Regarding landing and handover, the most important issue was the direct physical contact with the drone while regarding communications users need clearer instructions about drone´s direction, sound and look like.<h4>Discussion</h4>The identified studies used technology-driven approaches by investigating human drone interaction in already existing technologies. Users must become integral part of the whole development process of medical drone services to reduce concerns, and to improve security, usability and usefulness of the system. Human drone interaction should be developed according to the identified categories of human drone interaction by using demand- and technology-driven approaches.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0267664&type=printable
spellingShingle Franziska Stephan
Nicole Reinsperger
Martin Grünthal
Denny Paulicke
Patrick Jahn
Human drone interaction in delivery of medical supplies: A scoping review of experimental studies.
PLoS ONE
title Human drone interaction in delivery of medical supplies: A scoping review of experimental studies.
title_full Human drone interaction in delivery of medical supplies: A scoping review of experimental studies.
title_fullStr Human drone interaction in delivery of medical supplies: A scoping review of experimental studies.
title_full_unstemmed Human drone interaction in delivery of medical supplies: A scoping review of experimental studies.
title_short Human drone interaction in delivery of medical supplies: A scoping review of experimental studies.
title_sort human drone interaction in delivery of medical supplies a scoping review of experimental studies
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0267664&type=printable
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