Drone Delivery Canada has delivered some “shocking” news. The Toronto-based company recently completed Phase Two of a plan to deliver automated external defibrillators (you know, the thing they use to jump-start a failing heart on every episode of ER right before George Clooney yells “CLEAR”?)

Dubbed AED On the Fly, the program collaborated with Peel Region Paramedics and Sunnybrook Centre for Prehospital Medicine. From the start DDC has been able to show how easy it can be to safely deliver AEDs during a successful, simulated cardiac-arrest scenario.

The  Phase Two test builds on the first phase completed in 2019. Using a Sparrow aircraft, Drone Delivery Canada leveraged the vehicle’s new features, including a cargo drop capability and audio announcement system.

Lay Responders

A Drone Delivery Canada press release adds: “The testing further validates that using DDC’s proprietary drone delivery platform with cargo drop functionality to deliver rapid first responder technology via drone may reduce response time to cardiac arrest patients in the field while being utilized by lay responders.”

The drone deployed an AED to a pre-arranged spot, allowing a “designated lay bystander” to retrieve the life-saving equipment and apply it to a simulated cardiac arrest patient in a rural environment. Drone Delivery Canada also tested the delivery in multiple locations to measure and analyze the results.

“This partnership … is groundbreaking, Drone Delivery Canada CEO Michael Zahra said. “This innovative program utilizes DDC’s proprietary drone logistics platform to deliver rapid first responder technology via DDC’s Sparrow drone with the goal to reduce response time and potentially save lives.”

Improved Speed

Sheldon Cheskes, principal investigator of the AED On the Fly program also praised the demonstration:

“Our previous research within our rural community suggested the need to optimize the simplicity of AED use once delivered by a drone to the site of a cardiac arrest. Today, we were able to markedly improve the speed of drone descent, the ability to accurately drop a protected AED from a drone at a safe height but, most importantly, see first-hand the benefits of technology that guides the first responder through the application of an AED.”

Last month, Drone Delivery Canada announced a collaboration with GlobalMedic and Air Canada to deliver COVID-treatment cargo to Christian Island, a remote territory governed by the Beausoleil First Nation Community in Ontario.