In Michigan, more than 90% of the geographic area is designated as “rural,” according to the 2024 Roadmap to Rural Prosperity report — or 70 of Michigan’s 83 counties.
This can be a challenge when it comes to accessing medical services, said Alison Arnold, director of Central Michigan University’s Rural Health Equity Institute.
“When we think about the needs of rural residents, they are unique in many ways because oftentimes services that they need — whether they’re health services or community services — are not nearby,” Arnold said. “That creates somewhat of a challenge in transportation, either for them to visit with a specialist or maybe go get a health test somewhere else. That isn’t necessarily always available nearby them, and that takes time.”
Extra time can extend, delay or interrupt treatment for whatever the health need is, she said.
A new pilot program could use drones to bridge the time gap between testing at different facilities. An almost-$700,000 grant from the State of Michigan gave Traverse Connect and several other organizations the ability to begin testing the use of unmanned aircraft systems to deliver medical supplies.
This could be a big improvement for the Munson Healthcare system, Traverse Connect Director of Ecosystem Development Camille Hoisington said.
Munson serves more than 540,000 patients in more than 29 counties that are almost entirely rural, she said.
“To be able to optimize things like the supply chain within Munson Healthcare Hospital System would be pretty game changing,” Hoisington said. “I think the estimate last year was that they (Munson employees) travel 90,000 miles by road every year, or at least last year in delivering supplies between their facilities.”
Supplies could be anything from lab tests and results, to a piece of equipment being transferred from one facility to another.
Reducing the number of gas cars on the road also creates potential positive environmental impacts, Arnold and Hoisington both noted.
Phase one of the project, lasting about a month, will test drones in a 3- to 4-mile radius from Munson Medical Center in Traverse City. If all goes well, Hoisington said phase two will send the drones out up to 20 miles.
“By delivering by drone, you’re speeding up the process,” she said. “Basically you’re eliminating the road, so you’re able to fly as the crow flies, so you can get places much quicker.”
Munson’s Supply Chain Vice President Tracy Cleveland said the first operational planning meeting for the members of the project partnership is next week.
“I expect we’ll begin the pilot by the end of August,” he said. “It’s sort of a crawl-walk-run approach, so we’ll start with just a visible line-of-sight plan.”
Project partners include Traverse Connect, Munson Healthcare, DroneUp, Blueflite, Northwestern Michigan College, CMU’s RHEI and the Freshwater Research Innovation Center, according to a statement from Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist.
If successful, the drone implementation wouldn’t be limited to Michigan or to medical supplies, Cleveland said.
“Our goal is to establish a working advanced aerial mobility delivery model to serve as a blueprint for the future,” he said. “What we would like to build is something that’s scalable and pragmatic for integrating drones into hospital and healthcare deliveries — not only in northern Michigan, but across the state, and that could be replicated across the country.”
Hoisington said these tests will answer a few questions she has.
“How can we best optimize it and then what kind of potential impact can this have on delivering faster, better, more efficient patient care and ultimately affecting patient outcomes?” she asked.
“Especially for people that live in more rural locations that maybe don’t want to travel 20 miles to just have blood drawn or get a prescription, for example.”
