Yifu Medical Files IPO Prospectus: Mobile Dental Clinics Serve 10x More Patients Than Traditional Hospitals

In recent years, “declining birthrates” and “population aging” have become social issues of significant concern in developed countries, even regarded as a major “social malady” of the 21st century.

On one hand, the declining birth rate will lead to a shrinking workforce, making it inevitable to streamline and integrate specialized medical departments. On the other hand, in overseas markets, particularly in Europe and the United States, where populations are sparse across vast territories, accessing healthcare often involves arduous long-distance travel, which is both inconvenient and exhausting. Meanwhile, the combination of low birth rates and an aging population will further increase healthcare demand, necessitating more agile and innovative mobile solutions to address issues such as the uneven distribution of medical resources and the complexities of seeking medical care.

In this field, VCBeat has learned of an innovative enterprise focused on developing vehicle-mounted mobile oral diagnosis and treatment systems—IF Medical. Founded in 2021, the company’s core product is the “Robotic Automated Intelligent Oral Diagnosis and Treatment Device.”Diagnosis and treatment can be completed from the moment the patient sits in the dental chair until they stand up.

Lin Yingpei, Founder of IF Medical, holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University in the United States and is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh. With ten years of clinical experience in the UK and the US, Dr. Lin has served as Chair of the Department of Orthodontics at Massachusetts General Hospital (affiliated with Harvard University), Professor of Biomechanics at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Engineer at Olympus Medical Devices Corp. in Japan, and Research Director of Biomaterials at Harvard School of Dental Medicine. He has been honored with titles such as “Innovation Leader of the Zhongguancun High-Level Talent Gathering Project” (2022) and “Outstanding Young Innovation Leader” by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Lin Yingpei, Founder of IF Medical

Reflecting on his journey in founding IF Medical, Lin Yingpei revealed that he actually developed a strong interest in dentistry during his undergraduate studies in neurosurgery. At the time, the stomatology department of his hospital requested consultations for complex cases involving patients who had taken investigational drugs from neurosurgical clinical trials, and Lin happened to be the physician responsible for these consultations. During the follow-up of these cases, he observed dental abnormalities in many patients and consequently took charge of analyzing this drug’s side effects. Through this process, Lin grew increasingly close to the stomatology department and developed a profound interest in the field, leading him to switch his specialization from neurosurgery to stomatology. He continued to focus on stomatology throughout his master’s and doctoral studies.

In her scientific research and studies in stomatology, Lin Yingpei greatly benefited from a professor’s persistent emphasis on “focusing on the study of basic medical sciences.” “He told us that many medical devices are developed and manufactured by ‘non-specialists’ for use by physicians, whereas truly physician-involved device development is rare; by contrast, drug development is frequently undertaken by medical professionals.” It was precisely for this reason that Lin Yingpei chose to pursue medical device R&D in her subsequent entrepreneurial journey.

While studying in the United Kingdom and the United States, Lin Yingpei recognized the trend toward an aging population and declining birth rates in overseas societies. This demographic shift, which impacts future labor resources, exacerbates issues such as limited mobility and difficulties in accessing outpatient medical care. There is an urgent need for a solution that not only reduces the reliance on medical personnel but also makes medical diagnosis and treatment more flexible and convenient.

“Ten years ago, medical vehicles with similar concepts were deployed, but they failed to achieve widespread adoption due to the prohibitively high costs of maintaining stable water, electrical, and pneumatic systems within the equipment,” Lin Yingpei explained to VCBeat. At that time, nearly all medical device manufacturing on the market adopted relatively static usage models, failing to account for the instability in pneumatic pressure caused by vibrations during large-scale mobility, which could lead to malfunctions or abnormalities. Consequently, Lin Yingpei conceived the idea of developing a new generation of vehicle-mounted diagnostic and therapeutic equipment, dedicating himself to eliminating the inherent flaws of traditional devices.

During her graduation presentation at Harvard University, Lin Yingpei systematized her concept into the “Vehicle-Mounted Mobile Dental Hospital,” which attracted investors and secured seed funding from HCA Healthcare in Boston, USA. This marked the official beginning of Lin Yingpei’s entrepreneurial journey.

During this process, three colleagues from the Department of Dentistry at Massachusetts General Hospital highly recognized Lin Yingpei’s project and joined the founding team, later returning to China with her.IF Medical’s core team members graduated from prestigious institutions such as Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and all have prior experience working at Fortune Global 200 companies. Their extensive experience and technical expertise gained at General Electric, Olympus, Alstom, and NASA have laid a solid foundation for the company’s subsequent product research and development.

Charlie Borbon (Zhang Jipei), CFO and Co-Engineer, is primarily responsible for finance and logistics, and also assists on the production line during labor shortages.

Walid Mrad, Co-Engineer, MIT-educated, with experience at NASA and Alstom, assisted the founder in refining the functionalities of the vehicle-mounted mobile dental clinic and optimizing diagnostic equipment imaging.

In 2022, IF Medical achieved a breakthrough in "mobile" solutions. The company integrated the functions of numerous currently dispersed dental equipment and instruments—including diagnostic devices, therapeutic instruments, and auxiliary apparatus—into the "dental chair," which is mounted on a mobile vehicle, andOvercomes the defects of similar vehicle-mounted devices currently on the market, such as susceptibility to failure, lack of imaging equipment, and absence of other functions.

First, from a diagnostic perspective, IF Medical has developed "Approximate Color Imaging", that is, to expand contemporary computer principles based on the principles of ultrasound imaging and develop images constructed from modern computer achievements,This technology was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal last June.

“Approximate Pseudo-Color Imaging”: Expanding Contemporary Computer Principles Based on Ultrasound Imaging to Develop Images Constructed with Modern Computing Achievements

The diagnostic instrumentation on the treatment chair utilizes imaging generated by ultra-short pulse lasers, medium-frequency suppression, and fully convolutional Siamese algorithms, replacing traditional isotope radiation source-based transmission image acquisition. This approach eliminates the hazards of transmitted radiation and offers advantages such as reduced radiation exposure and superior image quality.Notably, IF Medical has accumulated a decade of research expertise in architecting this imaging array, establishing distinct technological barriers.

Furthermore, unlike other digital imaging concepts on the market, quasi-chromatic imaging technology not only offers multi-dimensional visualization but also provides intelligent diagnostic recommendations, primarily due to its advanced image analysis and processing capabilities enabled by quasi-chromatic imaging. For instance, in restorative dentistry, it can clearly display the grading of dental caries, proximity to the dental pulp, conditions of the occlusal or proximal surfaces, and the status of the crown and root. In endodontic therapy, it can reveal the three-dimensional structure of the root canal system within the tooth root, even clearly depicting complex anatomical features such as C-shaped canals and lateral accessory canals.

This technology not only aids in disease diagnosis but also alerts clinicians to potential complications during treatment, such as ledge formation during root canal preparation, caries approaching the pulp, dentin hypersensitivity, wedge-shaped defects, and combined periodontal-endodontic lesions, thereby enhancing diagnostic accuracy, treatment efficiency, and success rates.

In terms of treatment, mobile dental clinics now cover nearly all current dental procedures.The dental instruments on the treatment chair feature handpieces utilizing “ultra-micro probe power supply technology,” which can replace traditional mechanical turbine handpieces, and employ interactive laser technology to enhance treatment efficiency.According to Lin Yingpei, IF Medical’s therapeutic devices can reduce treatment time by approximately half compared to other dental treatments available on the market.

The IF Medical Interactive Laser Handpiece not only incorporates the widely used fractional and pulsed technologies prevalent in the tech industry, but also adopts advanced terahertz technology. It enables physical diagnostics (inspection, palpation, percussion, relaxation, and gingival assessment) and chemical diagnostics (temperature testing), while also assisting in imaging diagnostics by collecting information through laser reflection. It plays a significant role in diagnostic imaging and in the delivery of laser energy during treatment.

This handpiece can efficiently deliver laser energy for caries removal, pulp chamber access, root canal preparation and enlargement, as well as pre-restorative procedures such as crown sectioning of the tooth structure and alveolar bone. Furthermore, due to the adoption of interactive laser technology,"Silent Therapy" Can Be Achieved Throughout the Entire Process, eliminating the sharp noise generated by traditional dental equipment and reducing patient discomfort.

In terms of volume, this handpiece is 40% smaller than common turbine handpieces on the market, facilitating diagnosis and treatment in the posterior region while improving the clinician’s operational field of view. By employing ultra-micro probe power supply technology, it minimizes the impact of its own mass on data accuracy, thereby resolving the contradiction between handpiece size and capacity.

IF Medical Vehicle-Mounted Oral Diagnosis and Treatment System

Meanwhile, IF Medical has also integrated dental fabrication equipment into its mobile vehicles, eliminating the need to send cases to external processing labs and reducing treatment turnaround time by approximately seven days.

From a practical benefit perspective, IF Medical's vehicle-mounted dental diagnosis and treatment system breaks free from the constraints of fixed locations, making medical resources mobile and significantly reducing fixed site application costs such as rent, and alsoCan reduce the original number of medical staff by 3/4, significantly conserving healthcare human resources. More importantly, the revitalization of medical resources enablesThe number of patients seen can be up to 10 times that of a fixed hospital., significantly improving the utilization rate of medical resources.

Currently, IF Medical has mastered three core technologies: liquid-gas phase equilibrium arrays, power supply technology for ultra-miniature detectors, and anti-thermal radiation technology. These innovations support the company’s vehicle-mounted mobile dental diagnosis and treatment system in creating a new economic model, laying the foundation for future ENT diagnostic and treatment paradigms.Currently, the product has been commercialized in the UK, the US, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and other countries, while it is in the regulatory approval stage in China.

To reduce the power burden on the vehicle, IF Medical employs “anti-thermal radiation technology.” Integrating this technology into the vehicle’s structural design enables diagnostic equipment to dissipate heat effectively during prolonged movement and vibration, thereby addressing the issue of heat absorption by the equipment and providing the necessary heat for evaporation and condensation within the vehicle’s internal water circulation system.

To mitigate the impact of large-scale mobility on medical equipment, the company has adopted liquid-gas phase equilibrium array technology. Developed by core team members who formerly served as NASA engineers, this technology is based on systems used in spacecraft water supply. It converts gas into liquid and separates used liquid for recycling, thereby not only reducing the failure rate of vehicle-mounted equipment but also resolving water supply issues during disinfection and treatment processes.

Empowered by core proprietary technologies, IF Medical is firmly committed to an innovation path driven by independent R&D and high-tech advancements. In late 2022, IF Medical was recognized as one of the first batches of innovative small and medium-sized enterprises by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). In March 2023, it was officially rated by an authorized institution under the All-China Federation of Trade Unions as ranking first nationwide in its niche product market. In August 2023, it was certified as a Technologically Advanced Service Enterprise—a distinction granted to fewer than 1,000 companies nationwide. In December 2023, it was accredited as a National High-Tech Enterprise.

Nowadays, IF Medical has mastered sales channels and logistics pathways in overseas markets, and has signed exclusive licensing agreements with multiple universities and brand entities, such as securing naming rights and trademark privileges with Spain’s Dentaid. Lin Yingpei stated that this ensures stable channel resources for the company in European and American markets against the backdrop of normalized trade wars. Currently, the products have been marketed overseas for more than two years, with market share continuing to grow.

Guided by future trends in ENT diagnostics and treatment, IF Medical has integrated comprehensive oral diagnosis and treatment capabilities into its mobile units. Earlier this year, the company added ophthalmic examination functions to its iterated product, which is currently in the pilot trial phase. Moving forward, IF Medical will continue to iterate toward multi-functional (ENT, ophthalmology, and stomatology) diagnostic and therapeutic solutions, leveraging the mobility of “mobile hospitals” to enhance efficiency and patient experience.