Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz are testing whether drones can carry freeze-dried plasma straight to badly wounded patients when ground transport cannot bring them to a hospital in time. The CU Anschutz drone research is taking place in Ukraine, where the aircraft have already brought the blood product to medical teams caring for severely injured military personnel. The university shared details of the work on September 23, 2026.
The idea reverses the usual order of trauma care. Rather than waiting for a patient to be moved from the front line to a hospital, the team wants to learn whether a critical piece of hospital treatment can be flown out to the person at the point of injury. Two faculty members at the CU Anschutz School of Medicine, Corey Bills, MD, and Adit Ginde, MD, MPH, are serving as lead researchers on the project.
How the CU Anschutz Drone Study Moves Freeze-Dried Plasma
For decades, emergency teams have leaned mainly on whole blood and conventional plasma. Fresh frozen plasma must stay frozen and be thawed before use, which creates logistical hurdles outside a hospital. Freeze-dried plasma has its water removed, so it can be stored at room temperature and prepared quickly. The FDA has described dried plasma as potentially useful on battlefields, in remote locations, and in other challenging settings.
“When a critically injured patient cannot get to the medical system quickly enough, how can you bring a critical part of that system to the patient? What we’re trying to do is see if we can feasibly get blood products to individuals at their point of injury as opposed to waiting to get someone from the front line to a hospital.” Corey Bills, MD, Associate Professor, CU Anschutz School of Medicine
In Ukraine, normal evacuation is often difficult or delayed. The plasma, donated by pharmaceutical company Octapharma, is packaged and flown by drone to medical teams working close to where patients are hurt. Vik Bebarta, MD, who chairs the Department of Emergency Medicine and founded the CU Anschutz Combat Medicine Research Center, has also spoken about what the effort could mean for civilian care. Flemming Nielsen, a board member at Octapharma and president of Octapharma USA, said this kind of delivery can reduce dependence on centralized supply and evacuation systems.
Early Results From 26 Wounded Ukrainian Service Members
The first 26 patients studied were Ukrainian military personnel injured in combat, most of them with blast-related wounds and significant bleeding. Every patient received at least one unit of freeze-dried plasma. After the plasma was given, the team recorded a significant improvement in shock index, a measure based on heart rate and blood pressure that can point to clinical instability. The 24-hour survival rate across the group was 100 percent.
The researchers stress that these preliminary results do not show that the plasma itself caused the improvement. The study is observational, and many factors shape outcomes for patients with severe injuries. The team intends to keep gathering clinical data, with a goal of studying more than 100 patients, so it can better understand which patients and which kinds of trauma benefit most when drone blood delivery brings plasma to them early. Ginde, the senior associate dean for clinical research and a professor of emergency medicine at the school, noted that rapid blood products can buy a bleeding patient time to reach definitive care, which is the gap the CU Anschutz drone project is trying to close.
Why Researchers See Civilian Uses for Plasma Drones
The team sees possible uses well beyond the battlefield. Bills described how a wildfire can close roads, how a hurricane or flood can cut off a community, and how an earthquake can damage the roads and bridges patients need to reach care. A serious accident in a remote area or a mass-casualty event can also leave patients waiting, and for someone losing blood, he said, those delays can become a matter of life and death.
“We’ve spent years learning how to keep wounded service members alive when the hospital is far away, and almost everything we’ve learned has ended up helping civilians. This is the same pattern. If a drone can put plasma in a medic’s hands hundreds of miles from a blood bank, it can do the same for a paramedic on a mountain road.” Vik Bebarta, MD, Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, CU Anschutz School of Medicine
The researchers are clear that the drone is not meant to replace traditional evacuation. They see it as a second route for putting a vital medical resource at a patient’s side before conventional transport arrives. As the CU Anschutz drone study grows, its data is meant to show which injured patients gain the most from early freeze-dried plasma.
