A Silicon Valley robotics company has teamed up with the Rwandan health ministry to hasten the delivery of vital medicines to hospitals in remote areas

An ingenious drone delivery service known as “Uber for blood” has slashed the delivery time of life-saving medicine to remote regions of Rwanda from four hours to an average of half an hour.

A drone drops its first blood delivery in the compound of Kabgayi hospital, south of Kigali, Rwanda. Photograph: James Akena/Reuters

A partnership between Zipline, a Silicon Valley robotics company, and the country’s health ministry has delivered more than 5,500 units of blood over the past year, often in life-saving situations. Never before have patients in the country received blood so quickly and efficiently.

While commercial drone delivery in wealthier countries is still at the testing stage, hampered by busy skies and strict regulations on airspace, Zipline is delivering blood to 12 regional hospitals from a base in the east of Rwanda. Each hospital serves about half a million people.

The use of drones is helping to reduce maternal deaths – a quarter of which are the result of blood loss during childbirth – and high incidences of malaria-induced anaemia, which is common in children.

Drone delivery also means hospitals can store less blood, which means less waste as blood spoils quickly.

A technician from Zipline installs a cardboard box with a paper parachute in a drone in Muhanga, 50km west of Kigali. Photograph: Stephanie Aglietti/AFP/Getty Images

Now Zipline plans to work with the government of Tanzania, a country of 56 million people, to launch what it claims is the world’s largest drone delivery network.

Keller Rinaudo, Zipline’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said the move will make east Africa a world leader in drone logistics.

“Some of the biggest, most powerful technology companies in the world are still trying to figure out how to do this. But east Africa is showing them all the way,” he said. “The work in Rwanda has shown the world what’s possible when you make a national commitment to expand healthcare access with drones and help save lives.”

The idea for the drones came during a visit Rinaudo made to the Ifakara health institute in Tanzania, in 2014. He met a graduate student who had built a mobile alert system for health workers to text emergency requests for medicine and vaccines. A network of community health workers used the mobile alert system to make thousands of requests.