Approximately 82 million acutely ill and injured people in Europe and the USA have to be taken to hospital or transferred to a specialist clinic as quickly as possible in medical emergencies every year. And the best way to do this is by air. However, only around 1.5 million of them can currently be transported by helicopter. These are the results of a market analysis by the company ERC System, which incorporates data from the University of Alabama.
UAV DACH member ERC System is now addressing precisely this gap in care with an eVTOL presented last week for the rapid and comparatively inexpensive transportation of the sick and injured. The demonstrator "Romeo", which was presented in the presence of Bavarian Health Minister Judith Gerlach, already has the same dimensions and weight as the future eVTOL "Charlie", which is set to be fully certified and operational in 2029 and will then be three times faster than an ambulance and three times cheaper than a rescue helicopter.
The rapid transportation of medical products, incision samples, rescue workers or patients offers great potential for the drone economy. UAV DACH is therefore currently preparing to set up an application group on the topic of "Medical Care" in order to be able to address technical, operational and regulatory issues for this important area of application with high social relevance in the most practice-oriented and efficient way possible.