We read with interest the study of Amukele et al, who demonstrated that the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs), conventionally known as “drones”, may be suitable for transportation of laboratory specimens (1). Despite we would all agree that these devices do not substantially impact the quality of the specimens provided that several transportation criteria are fulfilled (i.e., appropriate operating temperature, short duration of transportation, preserve the samples from physical injuries), there are additional safety issues that must be considered, especially regarding patient safety. A number of extremely risky events have occurred in the past few months. In September 2015, a drone crashed during an US Open tennis match into an empty section of seats of Louis Armstrong Stadium, which has a seating capacity of about 10,000 (2). Just for chance no spectators were seated in the immediate area of the crash, so that no injuries were reported. In the following month, a drone crushed into power lines in West Hollywood, California, causing a huge electricity blackout (3). In November of the same year, a drone flying close to the gigantic Ferris wheel in Seattle crashed into the easily avoidable, massive metal structure of KIRO TV, falling in pieces to the ground (4). More recently, another drone crashed to the ground, nearly missing Alpine sky World champion Marcel Hirscher, during the World cup slalom in December 22, 2015 in Madonna di Campiglio (Italy) (5).
Although no one was really injured, the occurrence of these four consecutive episodes in the past 4 months highlights the serious risks posed by the increasing popularity of remote controlled aircraft such as UASs. Beside the widespread use of drones by television and film production companies, it seems not unrealistic that the advantages of UASs may soon increase their popularity also in many healthcare settings, including transportation of biological samples. However, before this happens, drone construction, functioning and usage need to be much better regulated for preventing the risk that a device crashes on the patients. Moreover, biological sample transportation is a specific healthcare activity, so that these devices can be considered In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) devices, and should hence be subjected to a strict control by the competent regulation bodies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the European Community (EC) before they can be broadly used in healthcare.

References
1. Amukele TK, Sokoll LJ, Pepper D, Howard DP, Street J. Can Unmanned Aerial Systems (Drones) Be Used for the Routine Transport of Chemistry, Hematology, and Coagulation Laboratory Specimens? PLoS One 2015;10:e0134020.
2. Drone hovers over court during match, crashes in Louis Armstrong Stadium. Available at http://espn.go.com/tennis.... Last accessed: 23 December 2015.
3. Drone crash causes Hollywood electricity blackout, Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/t.... Last accessed: 23 December 2015.
4. The $1,300 Drone That Crashed into Seattle’s Great Ferris Wheel. Available at: https://www.yahoo.com/tec.... Last accessed: 23 December 2015.
5. Skier Marcel Hirscher escapes injury as drone smashes behind him during race. Available at: http://www.theguardian.co.... Last accessed: 23 December 2015.

Giuseppe Lippi, MD; Giorgio Brocco, MD; Beatrice Caruso, MD
Section of Clinical Biochemistry, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
E-mail: giuseppe.lippi@univr.it