Case Study | Virtual Care Reduces Transfers and Travel for Rural Patients

The Problem

More than a decade ago, Corewell Health recognized a pressing need for patients in its rural Michigan communities. Accessing subspecialty care often meant long drives — sometimes up to three hours — to Corewell’s central facilities in Grand Rapids. This created major challenges for patients with cancer and other serious illnesses. Long trips were exhausting and disruptive, especially while undergoing chemotherapy or managing terminal conditions. It also placed stress on families trying to support their loved ones through frequent treatments.

To meet this need, Corewell launched a telehealth program in its regional cancer facilities, offering subspecialty services including lung mass consultations, genetic counseling, and benign hematology visits. Over time, the program expanded rapidly, bringing a wide range of specialty care — including cardiology, nuerology, infectious disease, wound, pulmonary, telestroke, palliative care, psychiatry and a virtual intensive care program — to communities across western Michigan.

Corewell was ahead of the curve, pioneering telehealth long before the COVID-19 pandemic made it a standard part of care delivery. But in those early years, replicating the quality of an in-person physical exam remained a significant hurdle. Providers felt limited by their inability to listen to heart and lung sounds during telemedicine visits, and patients questioned whether they were receiving a thorough evaluation. 

As demand for telehealth increased, Corewell needed a scalable solution that could elevate virtual care across their entire health system.

The Solution

To bridge the gap between virtual and in-person exams, Corewell adopted Eko’s digital stethoscopes and telehealth solution, bringing the power of remote auscultation into telemedicine visits. This integration enabled providers to listen to heart and lung sounds in real time, stream high-fidelity audio, and visualize waveforms during the exam — all while providing care from a distance.

With Eko, providers could conduct a more complete physical exam virtually, closing a critical gap in care and improving diagnostic confidence. The familiar stethoscope form factor made adoption intuitive for providers, while Eko’s solution allowed live streaming and recording of auscultation data for remote consultation and documentation.

"Being able to perform a thorough auscultation is vital — not just for clinical decision-making, but also for how patients feel about the quality of their exam. With Eko's visual waveforms and high-quality audio, it feels like being right there in the room."

Malik Khan, MD, FCCP
Pulmonologist and Pulmonology Critical Care Specialist

Corewell’s virtual health team partnered closely with its physicians and operational leaders to ensure seamless adoption across service lines. Eko’s customer success team provided on-site, hands-on training and support during implementation, helping to integrate the technology into existing workflows without disrupting clinical efficiency.

The Outcome

Today, Corewell’s telehealth program spans a wide range of specialty services across western Michigan and serves patients in some of the state's most rural areas.

By integrating Eko’s technology, the health system has:

• Expanded access to care for rural patients, enabling specialty consultations without requiring hours of travel.
• Increased clinical confidence in virtual settings, with high-fidelity heart and lung sounds enhancing early detection capabilities.
• Improved patient satisfaction, as patients receive comprehensive care while remaining in familiar, local care environments.

Eko also plays a vital role in Corewell’s Virtual ICU program, which supports 6 rural regional hospitals, each with 6 to 20 inpatient beds and no on-site intensivists. Through telemedicine and 24/7 remote monitoring by nursing teams, Corewell delivers continuous critical care where it's needed most.

"The success of our VICU program has demonstrated that we can care for patients in rural regional hospitals without intensivists physicially on site, while providing the same excellent quality of care they would receive at one of our larger, central hospitals. The confidence Dr. Khan and his team have in delivering that care remotely, and using Eko's telehealth solution to do that, speaks volumes."

Katie Thorsen
Corewell Health Virtual Health Manager