What we do
Apian is first and foremost a healthcare company, whose business is to improve health outcomes. We do this by building products and platforms to connect the healthcare industry with the drone industry.
- The NHS accounts for 5% of all road traffic in England;
- Slow laboratory turnaround times cost lives;
- Unreliable and uncoordinated deliveries cause overstocking, duplicates services and wastes money.
- Saving time by flying over the congested streets;
- Saving money (if the service operates at large scale);
- Making medical logistics more efficient by enabling deliveries which are not currently feasible;
- Providing medical products and tests to patients and clinicians more quickly;
- Reducing traffic on roads.

Aviation is safer than road transport. There have been no known collisions between small drones and manned aircraft in the UK. The CAA’s analysis indicates two incidents of proximity per million flight movements and, for this specific risk, the likelihood of an actual collision would be considerably less than this. The average fatality rate for passengers carried by UK operators is 1 in 287 million. In comparison, in the UK there is a 1 in 17,000 chance of being killed in a road accident and a 1 in 19 million chance of being killed by a lightning strike.
All drone operators procured by Apian are required to adhere to our standards and best practise guidelines providing proof of their safety systems and relevant insurance policies.
References:- CAA: Guidance on Unmanned Aircraft and Aircraft Systems
- MHRA
- CQC
- NHSX DTAC
Apian NHS Drone Platform
NHS Air Grid (NAG)
A nationwide network of drone routes connecting hospitals, pathology labs, GP surgeries, care homes, pharmacies and other healthcare service providers.
Health systems integration
Integration into Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) and Inventory Management Systems (IMS) to improve traceability and auditing of medical tests and supplies.
Order management platform
Support for ordering, routing, assigning, scheduling and tracking drone deliveries. This includes a mobile delivery app for healthcare staff and digital twin insight engine predicting future supply chain activity.
Standards & best practice guidelines
Evidence-based clinical and non-clinical guidelines for healthcare drone operations.
Medical drone container
Secure medical-grade container measuring internal payload environments, e.g. temperature and vibration.
Dronepad automation
UAV landing, takeoff and storage infrastructure for healthcare providers including automated loading and unloading capability using robotics.
Social science plan
Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE), healthcare staff engagement and academic research.
NHS drone procurement platform
Scalable tender process for healthcare organisations to communicate drone requirements and invite operators to supply services.