Tropes

R_www.forbes.com_technology 2015 00453.txt

#Ready To Get Your Drugs By Drone? Amazon Plan Could Be Game-Changer Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos knew skeptics would pan his drone-delivery plan. know this looks like science fiction. It not, Bezos told 60 minutes more than a year ago, showing off Amazon test-model octocopters. And he acknowledged that Amazon proposal to use robot drones faced major regulatory and technical hurdles. But the visionary CEO was confident that mazon Prime Airwould fly. t will work, and it will happen, and it gonna be a lot of fun, Bezos argued. Launch day is still a few years away at best but it just got a lot closer. The Federal aviation administration on Thursday awarded an xperimental airworthiness certificateto Amazon AMZN-0. 33%that would clear the way for the company to begin testing its drone program. It not blanket approval; the FAA permitting only limited forms of testing, such as having a pilot on hand to fly the drone at all times. That important, because Amazon wants its Prime Air drones to be autonomous.)And many, many technical and regulatory hurdles still loom. But the FAA certificate represents a necessary step for Amazon, especially after the company made several moves that were contingent on winning federal support. For example, Amazon already been hiring drone software developers, drone regulatory experts, and even drone pilots, too. So. Let say drone delivery actually happens, with Amazon taking the lead. The new model could dramatically reshape the retail industry, and affect Amazon fortunes. It could cut down on delivery trucks, for instance, and change our expectations and interactions with companies. But the most exciting and important application of drone delivery would be in health care. There no comparison. How Amazon Prime Air Could Affect Health care In fact for all of the major new players eying the health care market with Apple AAPL-0. 46%pushing to collect health data through the Apple Watch, or Walmart beginning to deliver care at its stores Amazon innovative plan is positioned arguably best to fill an existing gap. Consider: Americans are medicated heavily: Collectively, the nation spends more than $300 billion per year on prescription drugs. And the sheer demand for medication therapy is only going to rise, as chronic health conditions worsen: More than 150 million Americans may require regular medication by the year 2020, the World health organization has predicted. But Americans don always take the drugs they need: About half of prescriptions aren followed, as CDC has reported. Up to 30%of prescriptions don even get filled by patients in the first place. This hurts our health, and our health care system: Poor medication adherence leads to more illnesses, more deaths, and more unnecessary spending on health care. Some studies suggest that failing to take the right prescriptions adds up to as much as $290 billion in added costs per year. Amazon somewhat familiar with the health care market and may be eying a bigger push. The company already playing a major role in drug delivery, by sending prescriptions through the mail. Although Amazon gotten in trouble for its lax controls; physician Ford Vox last year noted that Amazon customers could easily order illegal steroids, stimulants, and other dangerous drugs.)But if Amazon can get its act together, get federal approval, and get its technology to work, the potential of Amazon Prime Air is obvious. Think about the patients who fail to get a prescription filled because of the time commitment, or the travel distance, necessary to pick up medication. For these patients, autonomous drones could go the last mile or the last couple miles in helping improve medical adherence and patient outcomes. Especially as more doctor visits and care end up shifted to telehealth, as my Advisory board Company colleagues have projected. For example, this Marketing and Planning Leadership Council research brief explores the rise in programs designed to remotely monitor patients. In this new world, health care really would be centered patient. Imagine sitting in your kitchen, finishing a virtual consult with your doctor, and then getting a package 20 minutes later with your prescription. There a bit of irony here. Drugs are already being delivered by drone illegal drugs, that is. Various cartels are using drones to send methamphetamine and other narcotics over the heads of authorities. One drug-toting drone infamously crashed in a parking lot in January. And legal drugs are being delivered in other countries, which have been more permissive. German packaging company DHL last year spent a month testing drug delivery-by-drone to a remote island off the country coast. But the test was plagued with problems; two of the first ten drone flights were scrapped because of bad weather. Would-be drone delivery services in the United states face complications, too. Last month, Amazon complained that the FAA proposed regulations on drones would be too harsh. And a San francisco startup called Quiqui got considerable attention for its plans to use drones to deliver drugs last year, although the company ultimately wasn able to get off the ground. That said, investors remain bullish on the U s. drone sector. In the third quarter of 2014 alone, investors poured a record $65 million into drone tech startups. Backers included major VC players like Adreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Google Ventures hope what youl see is the regulations get cleared very soon and youl see a whole bunch more activity, a16z Chris Dixon said last year. y hope is that 2015 will be the year of the drone

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