Discussion and Comparison with Other Works
During public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, deploying the PHC and other related RHS technologies in hotspot regions is helpful in terms of minimizing the risk of the virus transmission to frontline healthcare professionals and reducing their stress. Also, to avoid crowded places where there is no need for people to come in person to clinics/hospitals. Despite having so many advantages, UAV-based RHS poses challenges including [6, 11, 36]:
  1. Privacy concerns: The gathered data should not be used for improper purposes.
  2. Regulatory issues: Each flight should be licensed by authorized bodies.
  3. Suboptimal performance: Especially when drones are fully automated.
  4. Meeting performance and QoS requirements.
  5. Limited energy supply: Solar-based charging system is needed to alleviate this issue.
  6. Appropriate financial and human resources.
  7. Sensitization of communities and stakeholders before and during PHC implementation.
  8. Drone integration into the health supply chain: Should consider evaluating drone acceptability, profitability, and performance.
Table 7 shows a comparative study.