Connectivity Barriers in Rural Michigan
Exploring the effects of inconsistent broadband access on telehealth connectivity in Michigan's rural communities.
Learnings from Michigan
In Michigan, the Telehealth Broadband Pilot Program focused on six rural counties: Gladwin, Manistee, Missaukee, Montmorency, Osceola, and Oscoda.
Broadband access varied significantly across these counties, impacting both consumers and community institutions. While some areas demonstrated strong connectivity, many locations fell below the standards necessary for consistent telehealth services. Addressing these challenges is crucial for expanding healthcare accessibility and supporting rural communities.
Insights in Rural Michigan
Explore the broadband access and gaps, telehealth challenges, and opportunities for community-driven solutions.
Strategies and Learnings from Michigan
Effective Outreach Strategies
Diverse Recruitment Methods
Implementation in Michigan employed social media, alumni newsletters, and attendance at rural conferences to recruit participants. These efforts yielded a range of engagements, including 67 consumer deployments and 15 small business activations.
Localized Engagement
Direct consumer outreach at popular local businesses proved highly effective, building trust and increasing participation.
Boots on the Ground
Michigan employed a "boots on the ground" approach where team members visited communities and organizations to recruit participants in person.
Key Takeaways
Need for Infrastructure Investment
The variability in broadband quality highlights the need for targeted investments to support consistent, high-speed connectivity.
Importance of Local Relationships
Establishing stronger ties with healthcare facilities and leveraging community champions could significantly improve future efforts and inform broadband access.
Our Recommendations
Broadband Improvements
Prioritize infrastructure upgrades in counties and areas with the greatest disparities.
Expand Telehealth Readiness
Develop research partnerships with Michigan providers to ensure representation of their challenges.
Leverage Community Anchor Institutions
Use well-connected institutions as community hubs for telehealth services.
Broadband Performance Variability
Inconsistent Upload and Download Speeds Across Counties
Broadband quality and access differed widely among the six focus counties. Although some areas reported median download speeds exceeding a 100 Mbps benchmark, upload speeds often fell short around 20 Mbps. For instance, Oscoda County achieved impressive download speeds of 357.2 Mbps but had upload speeds averaging only 11.5 Mbps.
Consumer Challenges
While Michigan-based consumers had higher average download speeds than some states, a significant proportion of speed tests fell below a 25/3 Mbps threshold, indicating inconsistent service reliability.
Healthcare Connectivity Challenges
Limited Participation
Unlike other states at the time of analysis, the TBP team was unable to enroll healthcare sites despite multiple different approaches. Most healthcare sites in this geography relied on a centralized IT service. This dependency increased the cost to the organization to evaluate their ability to participate hindering healthcare site enrollments.
Innitiatives and Healthcare
The absence of rural healthcare site participation in the program highlights a potential disconnect between rural healthcare providers and the telehealth initiatives that could be available to them, which may exacerbate rural telehealth disparities over time.
Community Anchor Institutions as Potential Hubs
Strong Performance
Community Anchor Institutions (CAls) showed steady broadband performance, with median speeds of 123.5 Mbps download and 11.1 Mbps upload. Schools and libraries could serve as pivotal hubs for telehealth initiatives in these regions however there is still work to be done to improve this.