How a rural Michigan healthcare system is using drones to improve care

Northern Michigan is famously scenic, with access to three Great Lakes and ample opportunities to see peak fall foliage.

But its roadways don’t always provide the most direct route. That’s just one of the challenges of delivering healthcare services, according to Tracy Cleveland, VP of supply chain for Munson Healthcare, the region’s largest healthcare system.

“The drives are beautiful at any time of year, but they meander, and so it takes time to get from Point A to Point B,” Cleveland told Tech Brew.

But what if you could skip the roads altogether? That’s what Munson Healthcare is testing out with a program that transports laboratory samples via drone. Eventually, leaders would like to scale it up to serve multiple uses, like delivering prescriptions to patients, and for other healthcare providers to replicate the model.

State strategy: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer earlier this year signed an executive directive promoting advanced aerial mobility, with the state’s Office of Future Mobility and Electrification (OFME) responsible for leading the state’s strategy. The effort aims to support the development and commercialization of drone tech for use cases ranging from delivering packages to moving automotive parts between plants.

Last year, OFME teamed up with the Michigan Department of Transportation’s aeronautics division to establish the Advanced Aerial Mobility Activation grant program, which aims to help build out infrastructure and enable drone deployments. The fund has awarded about $10 million to date.

“It does provide us the opportunity to showcase how we can have diverse applications for drones and advanced air mobility,” Justine Johnson, Michigan’s chief mobility officer and leader of the OFME, told us, “whether that’s in healthcare, whether that’s in public safety, whether that’s in agriculture, whether that’s in defense, this is enabling all of those applications to come to life.”

One of the grant recipients was Traverse Connect, an economic development agency in northern Michigan, for the Munson Healthcare drone pilot project.

Taking to the skies: Munson conducted the first phase, using drones from startup Blueflite, in May.

Typically, Cleveland explained, Munson Healthcare uses road transportation for tasks like delivering lab samples.

“The van goes on a defined route, and it picks up all the samples on the route, and it delivers them to the laboratory,” he said. “Then that laboratory will take those samples in and set up a big batch and process them. And then they wait for the next batch.”

“What we already saw in our proof of concept is that we can make more trips with the samples that are available, and the equipment can run continuously,” he added. “It’s more efficient for the laboratory. It’s results faster to the physician who ordered the test. It’s therapy faster to the patient who had the sample drawn.”

During the initial phase, Munson Healthcare tripled daily deliveries of supplies to locations like surgery and dialysis centers. Factors like wind speed, weather conditions, and temperature were taken into account; Cleveland said there was no difference in drone-delivered samples versus those delivered by traditional methods, and no sample loss or spoilage.

The second phase will involve beyond-line-of-sight flights, with lab samples remaining the focus for now. Additional grant funding will allow the program to add new drones, Cleveland said.

“How do we continue to think about critical supplies and lab samples that need to get from Point A to Point B, and really being that connecting force for rural communities?” Johnson asked. “I think this is such a great example.”

Cleveland said he’s heard from leaders from other rural healthcare systems who are interested in learning about how the program could work in their service areas.

“This is so right for a rural community,” he said. “Munson Healthcare serves 11,000 square miles of northern Michigan, and it’s a challenge to provide and maintain access to what we are offering. This is a very innovative way to serve our communities.”