Optimal allocation of defibrillator drones in mountainous regions

Wankmüller, Christian and Truden, Christian and Korzen, Christopher and Hungerländer, Philipp and Kolesnik, Ewald and Reiner, Gerald ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7560-3410 (2020) Optimal allocation of defibrillator drones in mountainous regions. OR Spectrum, 42. pp. 785-814. ISSN 1436-6304

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Abstract

Responding to emergencies in Alpine terrain is quite challenging as air ambulances and mountain rescue services are often confronted with logistics challenges and adverse weather conditions that extend the response times required to provide life-saving support. Among other medical emergencies, sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is the most time-sensitive event that requires the quick provision of medical treatment including cardiopulmonary resuscitation and electric shocks by automated external defibrillators (AED). An emerging technology called unmanned aerial vehicles (or drones) is regarded to support mountain rescuers in overcoming the time criticality of these emergencies by reducing the time span between SCA and early defibrillation. A drone that is equipped with a portable AED can fly from a base station to the patient’s site where a bystander receives it and starts treatment. This paper considers such a response system and proposes an integer linear program to determine the optimal allocation of drone base stations in a given geographical region. In detail, the developed model follows the objectives to minimize the number of used drones and to minimize the average travel times of defibrillator drones responding to SCA patients. In an example of application, under consideration of historical helicopter response times, the authors test the developed model and demonstrate the capability of drones to speed up the delivery of AEDs to SCA patients. Results indicate that time spans between SCA and early defibrillation can be reduced by the optimal allocation of drone base stations in a given geographical region, thus increasing the survival rate of SCA patients.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Open access funding provided by University of Klagenfurt. This work was supported by the European Union Fund for regional development and Interreg V-A Italy Austria 2014-2020 and was carried out, while the first author was employed within the Interreg project START (Smart test of Alpine rescue technology).
Keywords:	Drone, Emergency Response, Sudden cardiac Arrest, Automated external Defibrillator, Location allocation, Integer linear programming
Divisions:	Departments > Informationsverarbeitung u Prozessmanag. > Produktionsmanagement Departments > Informationsverarbeitung u Prozessmanag. > Produktionsmanagement > Reiner Forschungsinstitute > Supply Chain Management
Version of the Document:	Published
Depositing User:	Gerald Reiner
Date Deposited:	24 Aug 2020 11:34
Last Modified:	24 Aug 2020 11:34
Related URLs:	Publisher
FIDES Link:	https://bach.wu.ac.at/d/research/results/96393/
URI:	https://epub.wu.ac.at/id/eprint/7715

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