Clark School Research in the News: Transplant Organ Flown by UAS

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For patients needing an organ transplant, time is of the essence—yet traditional methods of delivery, whether using ground or air transportation, have often suffered from inefficiencies and delays. Now, aviation and engineering experts at the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Test Site have demonstrated that organ deliveries can be conducted safely using unmanned aerial systems, popularly known as “drones.”

On April 19, 2019, UAS Test Site pilots used a specially designed unmanned aerial vehicle to deliver a donor kidney to surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore for a successful transplantation into a patient with kidney failure. The historic 2.8-mile flight heralds the potential to improve the speed, reliability, safety, and accessibility of transplant organ deliveries by using UAS systems.

The flight was a collaboration between the Department of Aerospace Engineering and the UAS Test Site; transplant physicians and researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) in Baltimore; and collaborators at the Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland.

Recent media coverage:

Baltimore Sun, “University of Maryland Medical Center transplants first drone-delivered organ,” April 26, 2019

WTOP, ”Earth-shattering’: Drone delivers kidney for transplant over Baltimore," April 26, 2019

USA Today, “A kidney for transplant was delivered by drone for the first time ever,” April 29, 2019

New York Times, “Like ‘Uber for Organs’: Drone Delivers Kidney to Maryland Woman,” April 30, 2019
Daily Mail, “World first as scientists successfully fly a kidney by DRONE to a patient in Maryland - paving the way to 'automated organ delivery,” April 29, 2019

CNN, “First drone delivery of a donated kidney ends with successful transplant,” May 1, 2019

The Hill, “Researchers test 'Uber for organs' in first successful organ delivery by drone,” May 1, 2019

Boing Boing, “First drone delivery of organ for human transplant,” May 1, 2019

Business Insider, “A drone delivered a kidney to a transplant patient for the first time and it's been dubbed 'Uber for organs',” May 1, 2019

BBC News, “Life-saving kidney delivered by drone,” May 2, 2019

The Times, “Drone delivers donor kidney to patient,” May 2, 2019

Popular Mechanics, “This Drone Just Successfully Delivered a Transplant Kidney for the First Time Ever,” May 2, 2019

NBC News, “A drone just flew a kidney to a transplant patient for the first time ever. It won't be the last,” May 3, 2019

Sky News, “Drone carries donor kidney to transplant patient in world first,” May 3, 2019

NDTV, “Like Uber, But For Organs: First Kidney Delivered By Drone,” May 3, 2019

Published May 3, 2019