For those in Bolton, Mississippi, looking up at the sky over John Bell Williams Airport on Tuesday afternoon, what they saw — two drones flying — could represent the future of disaster medicine.
This was meant to be a simulated mass casualty scenario and the drones carried kits of medical supplies to help “victims” said Dr. Italo Subbarao, senior associate dean at the William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine (WCUCOM) in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in a phone interview on Monday.
The purpose of the demonstration was to put the capabilities of the Telemedical Drone Project — known as HiRO (Health Integrated Rescue Operations) for short— on display. The concept was was co-developed by Subbarao and Guy Cooper Jr., a fourth-year medical student at WCUCOM.