Juehua Medical: Transforming World-Class Lab Innovations into Lifelong Vision Health Solutions

Vision health facilitates the smooth execution of daily activities such as reading and writing, and plays a crucial role in professional work and interpersonal communication. However, over the years, the number of people worldwide affected by vision-related diseases has been steadily increasing.

According to incomplete statistics, the prevalence of amblyopia in China is approximately 3%, with 12 million children and 30 million adults currently affected. The low-vision population stands at 68.9 million, including 17 million blind individuals. Degenerative conditions such as visual field defects, myopia, and presbyopia, resulting from traumatic brain injury, cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, brain tumors, and ocular diseases including glaucoma, cataracts, retinopathy, and macular degeneration, are also highly prevalent.

Whether it is the "flames" in the eyes of the young or the "radiance" in the eyes of the elderly, both are being shrouded by layers of "shadows" due to vision health issues.

Poor lifestyle habits, severe environmental pollution, and unhealthy diets are all significant factors that compromise visual health. Furthermore, an increasing number of chronic disease complications can impair visual function, leading to partial or complete vision loss. Consequently, there is a substantial global demand for vision care and rehabilitation products, prompting numerous international organizations to focus on related scientific research and development (R&D) initiatives to develop and introduce more effective products.

Some leading suppliers in the industry are also leveraging advanced technologies to develop vision health products, such as gene therapy, stem cell therapy, and algorithm-driven visual function assessment and behavioral therapy, with Jiangsu Juehua Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Juehua Medical") being one of them.

Juehua Medical holds multiple core international invention patent technologies, among which the core iAVT (Individualized Adaptive Visual Function Training) technology primarily addresses visual rehabilitation for individuals with myopia, presbyopia, amblyopia, low vision, visual field defects, and visual sub-health, offering numerous advantages such as precision, speed, safety, and significant efficacy.

Founded in 2016, Juehua Medical is located in China Medical City, Taizhou, Jiangsu Province. Adhering to the founding philosophy of "Innovating Vision, Healthy China," the company is dedicated to the research and development, production, sales, and services of technologies and related medical devices for visual function testing and visual impairment restoration.

However, the company's founding actually traced its origins to a long-awaited reunion between two former classmates in 2011.

Diao Qingsong, Co-founder of Juehua Medical, and Professor Huang Changbing were close friends and classmates during their university years. In his introduction, Diao self-deprecatingly referred to himself as the class's "underachiever," while Professor Huang was the undisputed top student. Upon graduation, Huang was directly recommended for graduate admission to the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). After earning his Ph.D. in Biophysics and Neurobiology from USTC, he proceeded to the University of Southern California (USC) in the United States to conduct postdoctoral research on amblyopia and visual neuroscience, working under the mentorship of internationally renowned visual scientist Professor Zhong-Lin Lu (USA).

In 2011, Professor Huang Changbing returned to Beijing after completing his studies abroad. He was appointed as a researcher and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and was selected for the CAS Talent Program. At that time, Diao Qingsong was also working in Beijing, and the old friends, after many years apart, finally reunited to share drinks and joyful conversation.

When discussing Professor Huang Changbing's research in the field of amblyopia treatment, Professor Huang expressed his aspiration to translate his years of research findings into practical clinical applications, thereby genuinely assisting amblyopia patients in need. Diao Qingsong highly appreciated and supported Professor Huang's vision, and the two immediately aligned on a shared purpose, sowing the seeds for their joint entrepreneurial venture.

Yet, what truly ignited the entrepreneurial fire was another candid conversation.

On July 5, 2015, the International Forum on Innovative Development of Vision Health (Vision China) was held in Chengdu, Sichuan, attracting over a thousand experts, scholars, and practitioners in the field of vision health from around the world. Professor Lv Zhonglin, Professor Huang Changbing, and Diao Qingsong also attended the conference. The three, along with several other participating scientists, reconvened at the hotel to discuss global amblyopia diagnosis and treatment, technology-empowered vision development, and the future landscape of the field.

The overnight conversation greatly inspired Diao Qingsong. Realizing that a substantial number of amblyopia patients in China still lack timely screening and treatment has further solidified his confidence in the company's future.

“A top student and an ‘underachiever’ thus joined forces to found Juehua Medical,” with Professor Zhonglin Lü serving as Juehua’s Global Chief Scientific Advisor and Professor Huang personally leading the team responsible for the translation and commercialization of research findings. In addition to bringing together outstanding classmates and colleagues of the two founders, the company’s team has also attracted a cohort of talents from the Peking University Health Science Center and the former Microsoft Product Department.

Since its establishment, Juehua Medical has established close research collaborations with numerous renowned domestic and international universities and research institutions, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China National Institute of Standardization, Sun Yat-sen University Medical School, and Wenzhou Medical University.

With the establishment of the company, the research achievements in visual brain science, accumulated by Professor Lü Zhonglin and Professor Huang Changbing over more than 20 years of uninterrupted work, were ultimately translated into Juehua Medical’s core iAVT (Personalized Adaptive Visual Function Training) technology, which was granted a U.S. invention patent in 2019.

In March 2016, leveraging its independently developed iAVT technology platform, Juehua Medical initiated the R&D of a series of therapeutic products tailored to diverse patient populations and specific clinical needs, including the ZhiShiYuan® Visual Function Analyzer, the QingShiYuan® Visual Function Training System, and the ZhengShiYuan® series for the treatment of amblyopia, myopia, presbyopia, visual field defects, infant vision, and low vision. This initiative aims to address the shortcomings of traditional treatments, such as poor efficacy, low efficiency, and limited clinical focus, to truly achieve precise visual function assessment, personalized adaptive visual function training, guaranteed therapeutic outcomes, and real-time early warning.

Based on iAVT technology, Juehua Medical can extend the application of standalone visual function training to full-cycle management scenarios encompassing precise assessment, monitoring, prediction, treatment, and rehabilitation of visual perceptual functions, as well as future myopia prevention and control.

ZhiShiYuan^®Visual Function Analyzer: Primarily designed for cutting-edge visual research laboratories, it fulfills the scientific research needs for precise assessment of visual perceptual functions. The visual function analyzer offers advantages such as higher precision, faster operation, and more comprehensive testing capabilities. The product has been recognized and adopted by clients including the China Assistive Devices Research Center, Huawei, and the China National Institute of Standardization.

Zhishiyuan® Visual Function Analyzer product image. Photo courtesy of Juehua Medical.

Zhengshiyuan^®`Visual Function Therapy Device`: Targeting conditions such as amblyopia, visual field defects, and low vision, it meets the clinical diagnosis and treatment needs primarily of public medical institutions, supplemented by private facilities, and features product advantages of high efficiency, rapid efficacy, and short treatment cycles.

Most amblyopia training products or conventional treatment methods on the market typically require three months to show efficacy, with clinical treatment generally spanning three years. In contrast, clinical data from Juehua Medical indicate that when patients undergo visual function training using the Zhengshiyuan® Visual Function Therapeutic Device (1–2 sessions daily, approximately 20–30 minutes each), their visual acuity improves by an average of nearly 3 lines after just 8 training sessions.

The product has entered the medical device registration application stage, and during the registration process, Juehua Medical also played a key role in formulating new domestic technical standards and testing methods for related products.

Zhengshiyuan® Visual Function Therapeutic Device Currently Undergoing Medical Device Registration. Photo provided by Juehua Medical.

Qingshiyuan^®Visual Function Training System and Big Data Analytics Engine: To meet the demand for visual perception health, this system can be applied to enhance visual functions in individuals with myopia, astigmatism, presbyopia, and related conditions. It obtained software copyright certification in February 2018. In September of the same year, Juehua Medical officially launched the Qingshiyuan visual health management initiative, marking the official market launch of iAVT technology and its direct service to the general public affected by visual function impairments such as myopia and presbyopia.

Qingshiyuan® Visual Function Training System Image provided by Juehua Medical

In March 2020, to align with the national policy promoting enterprise "digitalization" and to meet the needs of COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control, Juehua Medical also developed the home version of the Qingshiyuan Visual Function Training System. The system shortens the training cycle, reduces equipment costs, upgrades the efficacy monitoring and early warning system, and establishes management platforms for both the service and user ends, thereby bringing visual health services to the "home".

Since its establishment, Juehua Medical has successively received numerous qualifications and honors, including the Jiangsu Province “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation” Talent (Entrepreneurship Category), Third Prize in the Jiangsu Province Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, two awards under the Taizhou City “113 Talent Program”, and Second Prize in the Taizhou City Entrepreneurship for Common Prosperity Competition, among others. Additionally, it has been granted special funding from the National Key R&D Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Guided by national policies on new infrastructure and visual health, Juehua Medical is also undertaking multiple major national and local vision-related R&D projects. In the short term, Juehua Medical will focus its key efforts on the market access and sales of its amblyopia treatment products, while also implementing a series of product optimizations and iterations, and advancing clinical research on myopia prevention and control.

In July 2020, Professor Changbing Huang and colleagues published their latest research findings in PNAS, elucidating the components of visual perceptual function training and learning ability, marking a significant step forward in the development of digital therapeutics.

Juehua Medical co-founder Diao Qingsong stated: “In the long term, Juehua Medical will actively develop its digital therapeutics pipeline for visual function training and expand into the global market. Focusing on visual health across the entire human lifespan, Juehua will be rooted in China and serve the world, committed to establishing itself as a global leader in visual function assessment and rehabilitation.”