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Drone Medical Package Delivery for Improved Transportation and Better Patient Outcomes [supporting dataset]

Dataset Supporting Files
See Associated Publication(s)
File Language:
English


Details

  • Creators:
  • Corporate Creators:
  • Contributors:
  • Subject/TRT Terms:
  • DOI:
  • Resource Type:
    Dataset
  • Right Statement:
    Open Access; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
  • Geographical Coverage:
    United States;Virginia
  • Corporate Publisher:
    Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Program
  • Abstract:
    The project proposes to address for medical and emergency response package delivery for various applications where the use of aerial drone mode of transportation will lead to better patient outcomes and improved safety and emergency response. The project opportunity is the exploration of integrating autonomous unmanned systems in the delivery of medical, public safety and emergency response supplies such as medication to determine if this innovative technology can be leveraged to address regional health disparities and access to care for rural communities. Recent staffing shortages, transportation, and supply chain issues are even more prevalent across the historically disadvantaged Eastern Shore of Virginia, which includes Accomack and Northampton Counties and particularly the very remote community of Tangier Island. Extended shipping and diagnostic turnaround times due to the geographical and rural make-up of the region pose a challenge for urgent deliveries between hospital facilities, clinics, and pharmacies and can negatively impact patient outcomes. Coupled with the lack of public transportation systems that reach into the areas outside of Route 13, these geographies present unique maritime, road-related delays, and unpredictable congestion which pose an issue for urgent deliveries.

    The use of autonomous uncrewed systems (Drones) could revolutionize the transportation of critical medications, medical supplies, public safety and emergency response in rural areas that lack public transportation to improve patient health outcomes, provide needed access to people who cannot drive or depend on others to help get their medications needed for chronic conditions. The project planning, research, and prototyping involves several partners including Riverside Health System, Old Dominion University (ODU), the Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission, and DroneUp.

    This data package supports the report for the proof-of-concept findings, lessons learned and overview of the programs benefits to support at-scale-implementation of operations within the service area of Eastern Shore, Virginia. The project was funded by the Department of Transportation’s Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Program Stage 1 grant funding.

    The total size of the zip file is 16.4 MB. The .txt file type is a common text file, which can be opened with a basic text editor. The most common software used to open .txt files are Microsoft Windows Notepad, Sublime Text, Atom, and TextEdit (for more information on .txt files and software, please visit https://www.file-extensions.org/txt-file-extension). The .csv, Comma Separated Value, file is a simple format that is designed for a database table and supported by many applications. The .csv file is often used for moving tabular data between two different computer programs, due to its open format. The most common software used to open .csv files are Microsoft Excel and RecordEditor, (for more information on .csv files and software, please visit https://www.file-extensions.org/csv-file-extension). A TAB file is a very simple textual data format which allows tabular data to be exchanged between applications that use different internal data formats. These files can be opened using open-source programs such as Notepad or other open source, tabular file readers. These files are more commonly known as .tsv files (for more information on .tab files, please visit https://www.file-extensions.org/tab-file-extension-tab-separated-value). The Portable Document Format (PDF) file format was developed by Adobe Systems and represents two-dimensional documents in a device-independent and resolution-independent format. There are PDF readers available on many platforms, such as Xpdf, Foxit, and Adobe's own Adobe Acrobat Reader. PDF readers/viewers or online services for basic functions are generally free (for more information on .pdf files and software, please visit https://www.file-extensions.org/pdf-file-extension). The .zip file is a compressed archive created with the various programs supporting ZIP compression. Microsoft Windows supports creating compressed zip files by default. You can create ZIP archives in Windows Explorer by using file context menu and send to → Compressed folder (zip method). This will create .zip file of any selected folder or files in your computer (for more information on .zip files and software, please visit https://www.file-extensions.org/zip-file-extension). The following file types are standard for GIS mapping software: dbf, prj, sbx, shp. Because the files pertain to map layers and images, they are best viewed using the software that the team used or with any open source 2D and 3D mapping software. The .dbf file extension is traditionally used for database file by many database applications. The original program, which used the DBF file extension for its database, was dBAse. A major legacy of dBase is its dbf file format, which has been adopted in a number of other applications. For example, the shapefile format developed by ESRI for spatial data in a geographic information system uses .dbf files to store feature attribute data (for more information on .dbf files and software, please visit https://www.file-extensions.org/dbf-file-extension). The .prj file extension is traditionally used for files that contain projects. Projects contain settings, positions of saved windows, development notes and other raw data that won’t be present in the final file (for more information on .prj files and software, please visit https://www.file-extensions.org/prj-file-extension). The .sbx file extension is associated with the ArcView GIS application used to view and edit GIS data. The .sbx file contains spatial index for read-write shape used to fast access to shape files (for more information on .sbx files and software, please visit https://www.file-extensions.org/sbx-file-extension-arcview-spatial-index-for-read-write-shape-file). The .shp file extension is used for ESRI Shape format, a popular geospatial vector data format for geographic information systems software. A shapefile stores non-topological geometry and attribute information for the spatial features in a data set. A shapefile consists of a set of 3 mandatory files, along with several optional files. Each file in the set shares the shapefile name with a different extension. The main file .shp stores the geometry and must always have an index file .shx. A dBASE file .dbf stores all the attributes of the shapes in the main file. Additionally, a projection file .prj stores the projection information (for more information on .shp files and software, please visit https://www.file-extensions.org/shp-file-extension).

  • Content Notes:
    National Transportation Library (NTL) Curation Note: This dataset has been curated to CoreTrustSeal's curation level "A. Active Preservation". To find out more information on CoreTrustSeal's curation levels, please consult their "Curation & Preservation Levels" CoreTrustSeal Discussion Paper" (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11476980). NTL staff last accessed this dataset at its repository URL on 2025-07-15. If, in the future, you have trouble accessing this dataset, please email NTLDataCurator@dot.gov describing your problem. NTL staff will do its best to assist you at that time.

    Data Management Plan Note: This dataset is associated with a Data Management Plan (DMP) originally created using the DMPTool. A copy is included in the accompanying ZIP file and is also accessible online: https://doi.org/10.48321/D1F723D6D2

    Public Access Note: This item is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Use the following citation:

    O'Brien, Kevin, 2025, "Drone Medical Package Delivery for Improved Transportation and Better Patient Outcomes Full Dataset", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/GETYAP

  • Format:
    ZIP
  • Funding:
    69A3552341006
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:82de171efdd288a18ebb59d21217e70158b401de8376aa879f8b7448f673fb60781c76aa57eeb8ef019395e3dcf46cd0a7fee4a82fd46e87a87d107057e5e891
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 160.73 KB ]

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