TY - JOUR
T1 - The use of unmanned aerial vehicles for health purposes
T2 - a systematic review of experimental studies
AU - Carrillo-Larco, R. M.
AU - Moscoso-Porras, M.
AU - Taype-Rondan, A.
AU - Ruiz-Alejos, A.
AU - Bernabe-Ortiz, A.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Background: Unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) have had a rapid escalation in manageability and affordability, which can be exploited in healthcare. We conducted a systematic review examining the use of drones for health-related purposes. Methods: A search was conducted in Medline, Embase, Global Health, Scopus, CINAHL and SciELO. Experimental studies were selected if the population included human subjects, the intervention was the use of UAVs and there was a health-related outcome. Results: Of 500 results, five met inclusion criteria during an initial search. An updated search yielded four additional studies. Nine studies, all in high-income countries, were included for systematic syntheses: four studies addressed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest emergencies, three assessed drones for identification of people after accidents, one used drones to transport blood samples and one used drones to improve surgical procedures in war zones. Conclusions: Research on the use of drones in healthcare is limited to simulation scenarios, and this review did not retrieve any studies from low- and middle-income countries.
AB - Background: Unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) have had a rapid escalation in manageability and affordability, which can be exploited in healthcare. We conducted a systematic review examining the use of drones for health-related purposes. Methods: A search was conducted in Medline, Embase, Global Health, Scopus, CINAHL and SciELO. Experimental studies were selected if the population included human subjects, the intervention was the use of UAVs and there was a health-related outcome. Results: Of 500 results, five met inclusion criteria during an initial search. An updated search yielded four additional studies. Nine studies, all in high-income countries, were included for systematic syntheses: four studies addressed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest emergencies, three assessed drones for identification of people after accidents, one used drones to transport blood samples and one used drones to improve surgical procedures in war zones. Conclusions: Research on the use of drones in healthcare is limited to simulation scenarios, and this review did not retrieve any studies from low- and middle-income countries.
KW - Disasters
KW - drones
KW - emergencies
KW - healthcare
KW - unmanned aerial vehicles
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073998820&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/gheg.2018.11
DO - 10.1017/gheg.2018.11
M3 - Review article
C2 - 30263137
AN - SCOPUS:85073998820
SN - 2054-4200
VL - 3
SP - e13
JO - Global Health, Epidemiology and Genomics
JF - Global Health, Epidemiology and Genomics
ER -