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]:
- Privacy concerns: The gathered data should not be used for improper
purposes.
- Regulatory issues: Each flight should be licensed by authorized
bodies.
- Suboptimal performance: Especially when drones are fully automated.
- Meeting performance and QoS requirements.
- Limited energy supply: Solar-based charging system is needed to
alleviate this issue.
- Appropriate financial and human resources.
- Sensitization of communities and stakeholders before and during PHC
implementation.
- Drone integration into the health supply chain: Should consider
evaluating drone acceptability, profitability, and performance.
Table 7 shows a comparative study.