News

Tenders issued for follow on South African Medical Courier project

April 02, 2009

The South African National Health Laboratory Service has issued tenders for the follow on demonstration of the use of a micro unmanned air system as a transport system for sterile medical samples.

The tender, issued 20 February, is the focus of a compulsory bidders briefing being held in Johannesburg today (2 April). Tender responses are due 15 May.

The project is based on the use of a micro-UAS as a transport system for medical samples between remote area medical clinics and regional pathology laboratories. The current tender follows two previous rounds of demonstrations using purpose developed air vehicles from Denel and the Somerset West-based BFA Systems.

NHLS has been funding the project since late 2005 with the current tender supporting both air vehicle development and flight demonstrations.

The Denel system, designated e-Juba (or Electronic Pigeon in the Zulu language) was flight tested during 2006 and early 2007 and demonstrated a range of 53km while carrying a 500g payload.

The BFA "MedicAir" micro system, a flying wing, demonstrated a range of 40km during flight trials in the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces during 2007. The air vehicle had a payload capacity of 10g.

NHLS's core concept of operations is based on medical samples being collected at remote area medical clinics and sent to regional pathology laboratories for analysis. Medical reports would be returned to the medical clinic via a Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) telephony service. NHLS has previously funded the development of GSM based ‘fax-like' services to assist in the provision of medical data to remote communities.

NHLS has also flagged potential use of a UAS based courier system for the delivery of time critical medical supplies such as rabies-immune globulin,antivenoms and whole blood.

By Peter La Franchi