Supplying whole blood with drones for prehospital transfusion at trauma sites in Finland: A simulation.

Background and objectives: Prehospital transfusion is now increasingly used in civilian and military medicine. Blood products are, however, perishable and rarely needed in civilian settings. Given the rapid development of drone-based logistics and Finland's low population density, we aimed to build a computational framework to assess the feasibility and requirements of drone-based delivery of blood products to trauma sites. Unlike previous studies, which focus mostly on deliveries to hospitals in compact urban areas, we model direct deliveries to trauma scenes across an entire sparsely populated country.

Materials and methods: We used predicted trauma data on a 1 × 1 km grid covering Finland. Drone base locations were optimized using mixed-integer linear programming, and drone operations were analysed with a discrete event simulation model. Our approach combines strategic location optimization with operational-level simulation and is grounded in high-resolution, real-world data-driven trauma demand estimates.

Results: With 20 base locations and drones capable of a 60-km delivery range, over 80% of predicted trauma events can be reached. If drones can return to base, one drone per base is typically sufficient due to the rarity of missions.

Conclusions: We present a novel computational framework for simulating drone-based blood delivery to trauma scenes. Our results suggest that while current drone capabilities may still be limited, the approach is promising for countries with similar geography. The framework is adaptable and can support planning in other regions with reliable trauma demand data.