Health transport network in Ngäbe-Buglé

On Panama's Caribbean coast, geography directly shapes how medicines, supplies and health services reach communities. Dispersed settlements, long distances, frequent rain and reliance on land and sea transport can turn a seemingly simple logistics need into an operational challenge.

In this context, CIELUM developed a drone health transport network to complement existing logistics and provide a fast, frequent option for moving critical cargo. The project brings together aircraft, ground infrastructure, communications, operating procedures and coordination with health teams on the ground.

The solution is being developed with institutions linked to the health system and international cooperation, including Panama's Ministry of Health, the Pan American Health Organization and the Barça Foundation, combining aerial technology with local knowledge and operational capability.

The challenge: making distance matter less

The problem is not only how many kilometres separate a supply point from a health centre. In Ngäbe-Buglé, distance combines with coastal, forested, hard-to-reach terrain, where travel times can depend on road conditions, boat availability and the weather.

For a health system, these constraints become concrete challenges: keeping medicines available, responding to stock-outs, moving diagnostic supplies and returning samples to processing or testing points.

The project does not aim to replace conventional logistics. Boats and other means remain the right choice for certain cargo and larger volumes. The proposal is to add a new logistics layer: using unmanned aerial transport where speed, frequency and flexibility add the most value.

This makes it possible to move from a model based only on larger, less frequent shipments to an operation that can carry out smaller, planned or urgent resupplies, according to each centre's needs.

A network built around health operations

The network's main logistics hub is Pueblo Nuevo, where cargo is prepared and flights to the health centres are coordinated.

Kusapín currently has operational infrastructure to receive the aircraft, handle cargo and swap batteries. Río Chiriquí is also operational and is still in the route testing and optimisation stage. Santa Catalina is part of the network's expansion design and has yet to complete its operational validation.

The architecture allows connections to be used in both directions. Flights to the health centres can carry medicines, supplies and other health products. On the way back, the same capacity can move diagnostic samples, documents or other cargo to the logistics hub.

This two-way logic matters because it turns the drone from a simple delivery vehicle into a tool integrated into the health workflow.

Installed capacity

The operation uses RigiTech Eiger aircraft with a payload of up to 3 kg and a usable volume of about 15 litres. Their cruise speed, around 104 km/h, connects distant points in competitive times compared with many conventional options available in the region.

The network was designed with capacity for 20 cargo flights per week: 10 outbound and 10 return. This figure is installed, planned operating capacity; it should not be read as the number of flights actually flown each week.

Beyond medicines and supplies, the infrastructure allows for transporting category B biological substances, UN3373, so that certain diagnostic samples can be returned when the relevant health and operating protocols allow it.

The project also required deploying and adapting infrastructure on the ground: landing points, communications, power, receiving procedures and support tasks so that local teams can work with the aerial operation. The project work shows that the aircraft is only one part of the solution; continuity depends on the whole network working in a coordinated way.

Capacity matched to real supply needs

A central part of the project was checking transport capacity against concrete health system needs.

The distribution plan prepared for the Kusapín, Río Chiriquí and Santa Catalina centres covers, for one quarter, about 468 bottles of medicine and 55,452 tablets across different health programmes. That volume includes medicines for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. For malaria alone, the plan includes 8,252 chloroquine tablets, 22,376 primaquine 15 mg tablets and 16,184 primaquine 5 mg tablets.

The aerial network was not designed to move that entire volume at once. Its value lies in the ability to split and increase the frequency of resupply: moving smaller quantities more regularly, responding to specific shortages and using return capacity for samples or other supplies.

This approach matches the operating strategy defined for the project, which prioritises stock-outs, urgent needs and periodic resupply rather than relying only on large inventories stored at each centre.

From one route to a regional network

The installed infrastructure makes it possible to think of the system as a scalable platform.

The current routes are the first nodes of a network that could extend to other communities in the region, including Kankintú and Río Caña, among others, always after the relevant technical and operational assessments.

The potential is significant in a territory home to more than 90,000 people. This figure describes the region's population, not the number of direct beneficiaries of the service. Actual impact will depend on the communities included, the frequency of operation, the centres connected and the health services that use the network.

Expansion also points to increasingly integrated use within the health system: resupply medicines, diagnostic supplies, urgent products and sample returns using the same aerial infrastructure.

Technology applied to a concrete need

The Ngäbe-Buglé case shows that implementing Drone Delivery in health takes much more than an aircraft.

It requires understanding the territory, designing routes, installing infrastructure, securing power and connectivity, setting cargo and receiving procedures, coordinating stakeholders, training teams and running a safe, traceable operation.

That is how CIELUM understands aerial technology: not as an isolated element, but as part of a system.

The result is a new logistics capability for the territory: a network that complements existing means, increases resupply frequency and reduces reliance on a single mode of transport for certain critical cargo.

Purpose

Bringing health closer to those who need it most.

CIELUM combines aerial technology, infrastructure and operational experience to help connect essential services with territories where distance and access conditions remain a barrier.