TRAVERSE CITY — Munson Health Care says they have successfully completed a medical drone delivery pilot program, from May 9 to May 20, 2025, achieving a 91% success rate across 67 flights.
The pilot project, a collaboration between Munson Health Care, Central Michigan University’s Rural Health Excellence Institute, Traverse Connect, blueflite and DroneUp, was partially funded by the Advanced Air Mobility Activation Fund.
The initiative aimed to assess the feasibility of using drones for transporting patient laboratory samples within a one-mile radius of Munson Medical Center, signifying a significant advance in health care logistics for rural areas.
The pilot was conducted within a challenging rural geography that complicates health care delivery, where more than 90,000 miles are driven annually to transport lab specimens.
By using drones, logistical inefficiencies may be improved, decreasing delays in test results and treatment initiation, particularly for underserved populations.
“Advanced Air Mobility in the region will allow Munson Health Care to impact the resources dedicated to over-the-road logistics, which could improve the workflow in the clinical environment to reduce the time between test, to diagnosis and finally, to treatment,” said Vice President Tracy Cleveland of Supply Chain for Munson Health Care.
The successful completion of this phase highlights the potential for expanded drone use in the region.
During the pilot, temperature monitoring showed that medical specimens maintained an average temperature of 17.3 °C, which is crucial for clinical laboratory samples. This finding validated the drone’s capacity to transport specimens reliably without compromising the integrity of the samples.
“For blueflite, this first phase validated that advanced air mobility in Northern Michigan is no longer theoretical and is quickly moving toward real-world deployment,” said Frank Noppel, Co-founder and CEO of blueflite.
The company’s advanced drones were equipped with specialized systems for temperature control and precise delivery operations, demonstrating their capability in real logistics scenarios.
Initial operations were conducted under strict visual line-of-sight conditions and involved simulated deliveries with water bottles to ensure protocols were effective before transporting actual samples.
This phase proved the logistics framework and opened discussions about scaling to Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations scheduled for a future phase beginning in 2026.
The next phase aims to overcome existing operational challenges related to regulatory compliance and flight coordination, which must be addressed for wider implementation.
“Advanced Air Mobility will create fast, reliable connections for rural clinics and hospitals to specialized equipment and services that support excellence in patient care across rural Michigan,” said John Jervinsky, manager of Telehealth Programs at the CMU Rural Health Excellence Institute.
The overall achievement of a 91% success rate, with 61 successful flights out of 67 attempts, showcases the feasibility of drone technology as a supplemental logistics tool for healthcare.
The next phase of the pilot program is scheduled to begin in 2026, focusing on scaling operations to support Beyond Visual Line of Sight delivery.
Continued investment and regulatory advancements are necessary for the full realization of drone delivery capabilities in rural health care environments.