Mass General Brigham

Mass. General Brigham considers delivering medicine and supplies by drone

In the next few months, Massachusetts' largest health care system could be testing out a drone delivery program

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Mass. General Brigham could soon be testing a new concept — medical drone deliveries right to your door.

Within the next few months, the state's largest hospital system could be testing out drones that would take medicine, samples, and medical gear to and from patients' homes.

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"What could take our team something like 20 minutes to do, sometimes even longer, depending on traffic, we're talking about five, 10 minutes with a drone," said Dr. David Levine, clinical director of research and development for Mass. General Brigham Healthcare at Home.

MGB told NBC10 Boston that medical professionals, like nurses, would be at the homes with the patients sending or receiving deliveries and patient information will not just disappear into thin air.

"We can encrypt addresses so a patient's confidentiality would not be breached and also we would be working directly with our health care team," Levine said.

As of right now, MGB said, the plan is only to deliver to locations with health care professionals, but in the future patients may be able to receive the deliveries themselves.

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