Paper Details

Background: Drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, UAVs) are proposed as a transformative solution to extend the reach of telemedicine, particularly to remote, rural, and geographically isolated communities. While technical feasibility has been demonstrated in numerous pilot studies, widespread integration into routine healthcare delivery remains limited. Objective: This scoping review aims to systematically identify, categorize, and analyse the barriers hindering the real-world implementation of drone-based telemedicine systems. Methods: A search of literature from 2021 to 2026 was conducted in PubMed and Google scholar. Studies describing the implementation of drones for telemedicine-related applications were included and analysed. Results: Twenty-one studies were retrieved and filtered after title search and full text review. Five studies were included in the review. Analysis reveals key obstacles categorized into three interdependent tiers: Strategic (Regulatory, Economic), Operational (Technical Integration, Human Factors), and Contextual (Social, Environmental). Foundational challenges include restrictive aviation and medical regulations, unclear financial sustainability, technical interoperability issues, and a lack of standardized training. Conclusion: The path to operationalizing drone-telemedicine is impeded more by non-technical barriers than by technical capability. Future research must move from proof-of-concept studies to practical implementation research, addressing these systemic hurdles to enable scalable healthcare delivery.

Drone integration in healthcare, Drone-based telemedicine, Remote healthcare delivery, Rural telemedicine challenges, Telemedicine implementation barriers.