Ambulance service to carry out simulation study as part of national drone project

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) is set to carry out vital research with members of the public to test how drones can be used in response to cardiac arrests.

Project CAELUS, funded by Innovate UK, are a group of organisations aiming to develop the UK’s first drone enabled medical logistics network. SAS, a key partner in the project, is aiming to carry out a simulation study later in the month to better understand the feasibility of delivering an Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) via drone technology.

Every year over 8,000 people in Scotland have an Out of Hospital Cardiac (OHCA) arrest. This simulation study will investigate bystander interaction with the drone and also explore the protocols required to support SAS call handlers in navigating bystanders to a drone during simulated scenarios of OHCAs.

“The entire health service, including here at SAS, is always looking at ways to innovate and find new ways of providing life-saving care. Drone delivery of AEDs to Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrests (OHCA) is being investigated in several parts of the world, especially looking at how this could be used at remote and rural areas or areas of extreme urban congestion.”

Michael Dickson, Chief Executive, SAS.

During each simulated OHCA scenario, a group of participants will be given instructions through a telephone compared to another group of participants who will be given video assisted guidance to retrieve a nearby drone-delivered AED.

This study is building on existing research domestically and internationally, to better understand how drones could be used by an ambulance service in the future.

“This study will provide us with additional evidence to assess if drones could provide value to the Scottish Ambulance Service in the future. This innovative scheme has the potential to benefit communities across Scotland, including those in remote and rural areas. We look forward to working with our partners at AGS and the CAELUS project on developing it further.”

Michael Dickson, Chief Executive, SAS.

A number of live flight trials are planned across the country later this year as part of CAELUS.

“This is exciting work being delivered by SAS to explore how this technology could change the response to an emergency call to an out of hospital cardiac arrest in the future. Working in the NHS Innovation Space, NHS Grampian as the Lead NHS Board in the CAELUS consortia have welcomed the opportunity to work with SAS on this novel approach to delivering care.”

Karen Bell, National Innovation Programme Lead, CAELUS – NHS Grampian.

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The industry will once again be gathering at the NEC, Birmingham for The Emergency Services Show, co located with The Emergency Tech Show on 18-19 September, check out the full exhibitor list here. 

Join us at the Tech Main Stage to hear about how the CAELUS digital twin is being used to explore drone-enabled emergency delivery of defibrillators. More information can be found here.