Helicus Aero Initiative Qorus Innovation in Insurance Awards 2020 - Winner

Hospitals are changing their Business model. They form groups, and look for efficiencies of scale by centralizing activities such as their labs and pharmacies. In a hospital context, time is a critical, lifesaving factor. So in this new hospital context congestion of traffic and difficulties of mobility are an important issue. We believe drone transport is a viable option to solve this dilemma. As a first use case, we specifically look at Antwerp (Belgium), because this is both a major congested area and the UZA/GZA/ZNA as major hospital groups face exactly the aforementioned problems. To do so, the “Helices Aero Initiative” ecosystem (Unifly, Skyes, Baloise, SABCA, KULeuven, NSX, Proximus, …) was initiated with necessary industrial and governmental parties around the Antwerp based drone start-up Helicus. For the risk assessment and insurance aspects Baloise is part of this ecosystem, as Baloise is one of the most innovative insurance companies in Belgium capable of delivering the necessary knowledge and services. By participating in this ecosystem, Baloise gains insight in new risk models and mobility-related products/services For most of the partners, this is virgin territory. Specifically from an insurance point of view, we can build on our expertise in transport insurance. But it is by leveraging the shared knowledge and experience of all partners that results are being delivered, resulting in a successful real life test flight in September 2019. Remark: for the government, this drone case is a more interesting one than a package delivery service because of the societal benefit.