MissionGO and Minnesota team transports world’s first human pancreas via unmanned aircraft

[Fox 9 News, May 12, 2021] MissionGO, a leader in unmanned aircraft solutions that is transforming logistics; LifeSource, the organ procurement organization (OPO) serving the upper Midwest; and Mercy Hospital, part of the Allina Health system, today announced the first-ever test flight carrying a human pancreas via an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) conducted on May 5.

Following a moment of silence led by Lead Pilot Ryan Henderson to honor the donor hero, this historic flight transported a research pancreas from Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, flew a 10-mile circuit over the Mississippi River, then returned to Mercy Hospital. This flight successfully demonstrated the viability, value, efficiency gains and delivery speed of lifesaving organs via UAS within the Twin Cities metro area.

The pancreas was also monitored for the entire flight, using MediGO’s hardware and software platform to provide the real-time location status of the organ to all critical stakeholders. A biopsy was performed by LifeSource on the pancreas before and after the flight to study the impact of UAS transportation on a human organ, revealing no changes in pre and post flight biopsies. In addition to the organ payload being tracked with MediGO, MissionGO’s aircraft was monitored with AlarisPro’s new flight data recorder known as the AlarisAIR (Automated Independent Recorder) which provides flight telemetry data through both cellular and Bluetooth networks.