Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have significant potential to improve the availability of health products in hard-to-reach locations. As more low- and middle-income countries explore opportunities to improve their public health supply chains and diagnostics networks, knowing how best to use UAS to improve reach in the last mile is critical.
In this new white paper, JSI and our partners LLamasoft, Inc. and the Nichols Group provide objective guidance for countries and public health stakeholders on how to make informed decisions about which health products to prioritize for cost-effective delivery using UAS.
Our analysis took into account geography, UAS characteristics, and the characteristics of products and their demand patterns. The paper focuses on examining the cost-effectiveness of delivering:
• items for safe blood transfusion
• long-tail products (small quantity, unpredictable demand products)
• program and essential medicines
• vaccines
• diagnostic specimens
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