Drones in Medicine: A Bibliometric Study of the Last 15 Years

As global healthcare systems evolve, particularly in remote or mountainous areas, traditional transportation methods often face challenges due to terrain, weather, and road conditions, making it difficult to deliver critical medical supplies on time and potentially affecting patient survival. The emergence of medical drones presents a solution, playing a vital role in emergency rescue operations, disaster response, and public health crises. Though still a niche field, medical drones have vast potential for future growth. This paper explores the trends of drones in medicine by analyzing literature from the SCI-EXPANDED database of the Web of Science, focusing on publications between January 2010 and June 2024. The analysis included factors such as publication year, country/region, author, citation frequency, and journal distribution. A total of 76 articles were screened, with the highest number of publications from developed countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, showing an increasing trend over the years. VOSviewer visual clustering analysis suggests that medical drones will be a significant research focus in the future. The results indicate that advancements in technology, along with the impact of epidemics, will likely drive continued growth in medical drone research and applications.