Architecture and engineering firm Leo A Daly has proposed building "drone-powered" hospitals in hurricane-prone areas, which could continue operating even when roads are closed or destroyed.
The firm's Miami design office, led by architect Eduardo Egea, designed the concept hospital based on their observations of how healthcare was disrupted in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
Egea had family on the island, and their experiences inspired him to develop the idea.
"If any of my family members had fallen or had a stroke and needed medical care, there would have been no place to go," Egea wrote in a blog post.
The hospital is designed for hurricane-prone areas, where roads can be cut off
Egea points out that, with roads made unusable by the hurricane, staff, family members and suppliers couldn't always reach hospitals, in some cases leaving patients cut off from care, medication, food and air conditioning. "When barges finally began entering the port with supplies, there were still cases where they were unable to get those supplies to those who needed it, including the elderly and critical patients who can't move from those facilities," he said.
"I thought, why couldn't we bypass all that and have whatever is in the barges taken directly to the hospitals, and directly to patients""
The concept hospital features a drone port outside each patient's room
Egea's concept solves the problem of this "last mile" of delivery for h...