Flying to save lives evaluating the adoption and utilization of medical drone technology in Ghana

In this multi-phase mixed-methods study, I investigated the implementation, adoption, and impact of medical drone technology (MDT) operated by Zipline International Inc. within Ghana’s healthcare system. I began with a one-month ethnographic study, where I conducted 5–10 hours of weekly participant observation and carried out 12 semi-structured interviews to gain a deep, contextual understanding of Zipline’s real-time operations and its integration into existing healthcare supply chains. In the second phase, guided by the Technological Capital for eHealth Communication (TCeHC) framework, I conducted 18 in-depth interviews with healthcare professionals to explore how they adopt and adapt to MDT, focusing on their technological awareness, access, training, and communication with Zipline staff. In the third phase, I applied the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and surveyed 251 healthcare workers across nine regions of Ghana using stratified random sampling. I analyzed the data using structural equation modeling to examine how performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions influenced their behavioral intention and actual use of MDT.My findings show that Zipline’s drone technology improves emergency response times, reduces stockouts, and expands access to critical medical supplies in hard-to-reach communities. Healthcare professionals reported both enthusiasm and concerns, citing structural challenges such as occasional delivery delays, limited payload capacity, and the need for better coordination. Social influence and facilitating conditions emerged as strong predictors of drone technology use, while some expected relationships, such as performance expectancy, revealed unexpected negative associations with intention to adopt. Through this study, I demonstrate how MDT can reshape healthcare delivery and communication in low-resource settings, offering actionable insights for policy, practice, and future research on health technology integration in underserved regions.