Drone delivery and AI have the potential to redefine how healthcare reaches people in the most underserved regions, but their impact depends on how thoughtfully they are deployed. In places where distance, infrastructure, or limited resources already shape health outcomes, technological solutions must address inequality with clarity and intention, ensuring tech becomes a pathway into care rather than another obstacle. Nowhere is this need more visible than in rural Appalachia, a region where travel time, chronic disease burden, and digital inequities converge to create some of the country’s steepest healthcare challenges. These realities place communities at a disadvantage while also making them uniquely positioned to benefit from new, smarter delivery models.
“Technology is never the centerpiece, the patient is,” says Dr. Teresa Owens Tyson, President and CEO of The Health Wagon, a nonprofit mobile and stationary clinic network delivering free or low-cost medical, dental, and pharmacy services across Southwest Virginia. For her, innovative technologies aiming to accelerate access must be grounded in a clear understanding of the people and environments they are meant to serve.
Putting Patients at the Center of Innovation
For more than 30 years, The Health Wagon has worked to dismantle the structural barriers that keep rural patients from receiving timely, equitable care. Under Dr. Tyson’s leadership, the organization has expanded from a single mobile unit into a multi-state network of clinics, tele-health services, and free pharmacy programs designed specifically to reach those most often left behind.
In 2015, The Health Wagon partnered with NASA Langley, Virginia Tech, Flirtey, and local advocate Jack Kennedy to complete the first FAA‑approved drone delivery of prescription medications. The drone, now housed in the Smithsonian’s Thomas W. Haas We All Fly at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC., transported medications from a regional airport directly to a Remote Area Medical clinic in Wise County. “It was exhilarating to know that we were an integral member of that first drone delivery,” shares Dr. Tyson. The historic flight has become an international example of how targeted technology can solve real problems, such as keeping patients connected to essential healthcare even in extreme weather conditions. “You see it in the winter when people run out of insulin; the ability for a drone to deliver that medication directly to them is tremendous,” she says.
Why the Momentum Stalled
Despite the promise and global attention surrounding the 2015 achievement, progress on scaling drone delivery of medical supplies in the United States has largely stalled. Regulatory hurdles have slowed adoption, even as other countries have successfully built national drone networks capable of delivering blood, vaccines, and critical medications daily. While the regulatory landscape evolves, The Health Wagon continues working with partners at the University of Tennessee to advance feasibility studies and keep the conversation moving forward. For Dr. Tyson, the COVID-19 pandemic underscored just how consequential this stalled progress has been. The U.S. missed a pivotal opportunity to demonstrate the value of scaled medical drone delivery, particularly as drones could have delivered testing kits, supplies, and essential medications to quarantined or geographically isolated patients. “We could have dropped supplies, we could have dropped COVID testing, we could have dropped medicines that were hugely needed,” says Dr. Tyson.
Community Trust and Multi-Sector Collaboration
Today, The Health Wagon continues to explore new ways to reach patients beyond traditional delivery models. From mobile clinics and telehealth outreach to remote monitoring devices placed directly in homes, the organization has consistently adapted its approach to ensure care reaches even the most isolated patients. Drone delivery remains one of the most compelling use cases in global health equity. Its potential is especially clear in chronic disease management, where timely access to medication can determine health outcomes. The success of the 2015 drone project was not only due to its ability to meet an immediate and tangible need, but also to the strength of the partnerships behind it, which amplified its impact and made the milestone resonate even more deeply.
Engineers, researchers, healthcare practitioners, and community leaders came together around a single mission to remove geographic limitations to care. “We had so many multiple partners on this project,” Dr. Tyson says, emphasizing how essential that collective effort was to making the breakthrough possible.
AI and Rural Healthcare
Innovative technologies have already proven their ability to meet real patient needs and reduce inequality in access to care, and AI is increasingly becoming part of that conversation. For example, AI‑enabled screening and remote monitoring can improve early detection. However, the risks are equally important. AI-enabled screening and remote monitoring depend on broadband, smart devices, and digital literacy, resources not guaranteed in rural areas. Without intentional design, these tools risk benefiting those already well served while pushing low-resource communities even further behind.
The Health Wagon has piloted solutions to bridge this gap, including installing more than 100 remote monitoring devices supported by Starlink satellite internet to strengthen digital literacy and home-based care. When implemented equitably, AI has the potential to be what Dr. Tyson calls “the great equalizer,” delivering world-class care to mountaintops, hollers, and remote front porches.
A Path Forward Rooted in Equity
Drone delivery and AI are not end goals. They are part of a larger movement to ensure that rural healthcare systems are designed with the same sophistication and intentionality found in major metropolitan areas. Dr. Tyson’s vision includes expanding mobile diagnostics, integrating specialty services, and building systems that eliminate geographic and economic barriers. “We make the patient the focus of everything we do.” That philosophy has allowed The Health Wagon to deliver more than $28 million in free services in the past year alone while charting a blueprint for the future of rural health.
Stay connected with Dr. Teresa Owens Tyson’s ongoing work in rural health equity on LinkedIn, or visit her website.
