NEWS
Boots completes drone delivery of prescription medicines in UK first
A leading health and beauty retailer , Boots has already completed a test flight transporting prescription-only medicines by drone from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight .
The flight departed from the British Army ’ s Baker Barracks on Thorney Island near Portsmouth and arrived at St . Mary ’ s Hospital on the Isle of Wight . The medicines were collected by Boots and transported to its pharmacies across the island , where they will be dispensed to patients with prescriptions for them . Boots worked with medical drone startup , Apian , to facilitate the test flight and is now assessing the future potential for drones in medicines delivery .
“ Drones have huge potential in the delivery of medicines and it is incredibly exciting to be the first community pharmacy in the UK to transport them in this way ,” said Rich Corbridge , Chief Information Officer at Boots . “ An island location like the Isle of Wight seemed like a sensible place to start a trial of drones and their value to the delivery of medicines to more remote locations is very clear .
Boots has become the first community pharmacy in the UK to transport prescription-only medicines by Uncrewed Aerial
Vehicles ( UAVs ) – commonly known as drones .
“ In this trial , we will be looking at how much time we can save , as well as how we can incorporate drones into our medicines supply chain to create economic efficiencies too . We want to prepare now for the wider use of this technology in the future .”
European ICT investments to reach US $ 1.1 trillion this year
According to International Data
Corporation ’ s ( IDC ) Worldwide ICT Spending Guide Enterprise and SMB by Industry , ICT spending in Europe will reach US $ 1.1 trillion in 2022 and will get close to US $ 1.4 trillion by 2026 , growing at a 5 % fiveyear 2021 – 2026 CAGR .
Investments in software will drive most technology spending in Europe in 2022 and software will be the fastest-growing technology group by year-on-year growth , supported by fast growth in Artificial Intelligence platforms , collaborative applications and software quality and lifecycle tools . With investments in cloudfirst solutions , the software market has remained resilient to factors that impacted the hardware market , which is expected to decline 0.1 % this year . Inflationary pressures , an expected recession and the Russia-Ukraine war are dampening demand for hardware in Europe . Spending on devices will be the most impacted by the increasing cost of living , product shortages and suspended shipments .
Consumer , banking and discrete manufacturing will be among the top spenders in ICT , absorbing almost 46 % of overall ICT spend in 2022 . Europe is affected by supply chain disruptions , many of which are linked to the war in Ukraine . This is affecting many industries , which are turning to automation to optimise processes and minimise disruption . Banking will be focusing on transformative processes that focus on automation and customer-centricity to redefine how financial services deliver employee and customer experiences , supporting and reimagining core banking services , risk management , HR and talent management and audit and compliance through automation .
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