The HealthDrone is a multi-phased project, piloting autonomous air freight in the healthcare sector. The HealthDrone project aims to remove the main barriers for the implementation of drone-based logistics. The goal is for the healthcare sector to have reliable and efficient drone-based cargo transportation in the future.

The project has identified needs and removed barriers to provide safe, reliable, and efficient cargo transport with drones. The HealthDrone project has had the first autonomous BVLOS flights (beyond visual line of sight) approved in Denmark.

The project aims to establish the technological and operational setup required to provide delivery of diagnostic patient samples, medical supplies, and other forms of healthcare equipment, with freight drones. 

Drones used in the HealthDrone are commercially available. The technology is being developed during the project, with different work streams focused on system integration, research, and development. Testing the components required to overcome the specific challenges for enabling drone-based cargo is a major part of the project objectives.

HealthDrone provides key technological and operational components, in order to enable commercial drone flights by 2024 in specifically selected scenarios that provide immediate value in the healthcare sector.

HealthDrone plans to operate within some distinct use-cases in healthcare logistics, all of which positively will impact both the quality of treatments and the patient treatment time, while reducing the cost of healthcare. The use cases will over time benefit patients, hospital staff, and the healthcare system as a whole. In 2021 we are slowly starting up projects that will pave the way for the use cases being a part of mobility services.

HealthDrone projects
Read more about the different phases of the HealthDrone project here: 

• H.C. Andersen Airport 

• Odense University Hospital

• Ærø 

• Odense/Svendborg/Ærø

Project partners

The partners in the HealthDrone project are The University of Southern Denmark, Falck, Odense University Hospital, Unifly, Scandinavian Avionics and Holo. The project is funded by Innovation Fund Denmark. All partners contribute with their specific expertise. The role of Holo is to find the appropriate drone for the project, the implementation of the operation and to get flights approved for the individual projects based on the SORA framework.