Bild: Drone staff of the Faculty of Health Sciences

Currently the use of drones is steadily increasing. International and national organisations, major corporations and government institutions are using this aeronautical technology to increase their effectiveness, expand current potentials and develop new methods.
But especially within public services, this technology needs further research and development:

These days police and disaster relief organisations use technologies like thermal imaging and high-resolution cameras in combination with helicopter search units to find missing persons in different geographical locations including forests or lakes. But also during natural catastrophes or other situations in which a systematically and intensive screening of disaster areas is needed, is currently conducted with these methods.

All of these methods are highly staff and cost intensive which in such situations is a very limited resource, especially in rural and highly affected areas.

Our approach to this dilemma, is the use of drones. These unmanned aircrafts offer a high level of flexibility, they can be programmed for different scenarios and can be used as a link for communication between the scene of emergency and a control center.

At the University of Applied Sciences (THM) Gießen in the Faculty of Health Sciences, one of the major research focuses is the use, implementation and general benefit of this technology. An interdisciplinary group of scientists with different background from engineers, active emergency physicans, information technologists to medical managers is working together to providing solutions in this area of expertise.

An example of our current solutions:
“Sweeping Triage”: A drone pilot uses the drone in a mass-casualty accident to provide a live picture from the scene. At the same time triage of patient is performed and ground units of emergency workers and helpers can rescue and treat these patients.
By using this technology as an essential unit within a disaster location, patients receive the needed help in a situation of limited resources quicker than with commonly used models and tools.
“Geographical Screening”: By programming drones to fly in groups and provide many combined live pictures from a geographical location, it is possible to quickly screen a wide area with limited resources and to improve search and rescue measures.
“Rapid Response Unit”: With medical equipment like AEDs often not being near the site of an emergency, a further use that is being develop is the support of first responders. In Out-of-Hospital cardiac arrest an early defibrillation by bystanders and first responders significantly increases the chances of survival. By bringing these tools to the site of emergency, a better outcome and quality of care for each patient could be provided.

Our research groups is equipped with all of these modern technologies and is continuously developing and testing new models, systems and solutions to provide a better outcome and a general benefit for each Patient. Therefore, we are working with national institutions, healthcare organisations and fire departments to offer these solutions in everyday care.

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