Biological samples transportation by drones: ready for prime time?

According to the concept originally introduced by George D. Lundberg in the 1980s, the total testing process entails three essential and sequential parts, that are the preanalytical phase, the analytical phase and the postanalytical phase (1) (Figure 1). Briefly, the preanalytical phase encompasses all those (prevalently) manually-intensive activities designed for obtaining, handling, transporting, preparing and storing biological samples before testing (2). Reliable evidence, accumulated after decades of research aimed to improve the total quality of the testing process, underpins the notion that the vast majority of problems in laboratory diagnostics are attributable to incorrect or inappropriate preanalytical activities (3).