Shuyang Health's R+ Platform Achieves U.S. Medicare Reimbursement and Scales Patient Management Tenfold
The Commercialization Path of Digital Therapeutics Is Long and Arduous. Due to the lack of reimbursement channels from payers aligned with the value of digital therapeutics, as well as the need to enhance payment capacity on the payer side, the commercialization of digital therapeutics currently faces challenges, with its pathways and sales models yet to be clearly defined.
Zhang Yuming, Director of the East China Center for Medical Health Big Data and Network Research at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), has outlined the development path for digital therapeutics, highlighting a key point: the commercialization path does not equate to direct profitability. After clearing the regulatory review and approval hurdles, enterprises must clearly position their services, collaborate to leverage development resources, and identify commercial channels across different stages. By establishing a complete service loop and empowering the industrial chain’s value through platform capabilities, companies can then further seek partners to explore viable profit models.
In other words, the entire cycle for enterprises—from the design, R&D, and listing of digital therapeutics products to their validation, sales, and profitability—still requires a timeframe of several years, at least for now.
However, not all digital therapeutics companies are constrained by this. The Shukang APP, independently developed by Chengdu Shangyi Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Shukang” based on its product name), obtained NMPA digital therapeutics certification in 2020 and CE certification from the European Union in 2021. This year, it has also received FDA medical device classification determination and is on the verge of obtaining FDA clearance, having already initiated commercial exploration of digital therapeutics in both the Chinese and U.S. markets.
On May 6, 2023, the “R+ Health Platform + DTx (Digital Therapeutics Product)” management platform (hereinafter referred to as the “R+ Platform”), developed by the Shukang team as the world’s first end-to-end platform for cardiovascular disease intervention and treatment, received its first U.S. health insurance reimbursement payment. This milestone successfully validated the insurance payment model, achieving a closed loop from research and development to reimbursement. The efficiency of the Shukang R+ Management Platform has broken through the ceiling of traditional rehabilitation management, which heavily relies on manual labor, and resolved the issue of inconsistent and unsynchronized data caused by switching between multiple management systems. As a result, the number of patients managed has increased tenfold.
Prior to the launch of the Shukang R+ platform, the absence of a professional, end-to-end rehabilitation management platform for patients with cardiovascular disease compelled U.S. chronic disease management teams to select multiple software tools to support their workflows based on specific needs, such as patient scheduling, enrollment, data recording and tracking, rehabilitative exercise guidance, nutritional counseling, and patient follow-up. Due to the limited functionality of these individual applications, managing the entire care process typically required the coordination of multiple software programs and systems. The most significant issue arising from this fragmentation was the substantial time burden placed on teams by manual data transfer and documentation organization across different platforms, resulting in markedly reduced operational efficiency.
To address these cumbersome operational processes and reduce unnecessary time commitments, the Shukang team developed the R+ platform after thoroughly studying the workflow requirements of remote health management teams. This comprehensive platform enables end-to-end intervention and management for patients, covering recruitment, enrollment, data recording, assessment, treatment, follow-up, and insurance payment. The management capacity of a five-person team increased from 200 to 2,000 patients, significantly boosting the medical team’s work efficiency. Tasks that previously required overtime to organize data for insurance companies can now be completed in just five minutes.
Data tracking shows that, with the support of the R+ platform, the chronic disease management team has kept the 30-day readmission rate for heart failure patients at approximately 2.1%, significantly lower than the average 30-day readmission rate for heart failure patients (17.8%).
Beyond addressing work efficiency, the R+ platform stands out for its customizability. It can be integrated with various digital therapeutics (DTx) on demand, tailored into a management platform for single or multiple diseases, and features a unique modular “R+DTx” architecture that allows for flexible assembly and disassembly. This enables personalized, integrated care solutions for patients, thereby enhancing whole-process disease management.
Leveraging the team’s accumulation of technology and user data, along with the continuous refinement of its platform capabilities, the R+ Platform has secured insurance recognition and reimbursement in the U.S. market, thereby validating the feasibility of Shukang’s business model. Collaborations with B-end partners—including HCA Healthcare, one of the largest healthcare groups in the United States; Baylor Medical Center, which ranks second globally in heart transplant volume; and Wayne Center, a New York-based senior care chain—have enabled the R+ Platform to build a user base of over 100,000 individuals. The R+ Platform will assist U.S. chronic disease management teams in delivering high-quality health management and rehabilitation services.
As China’s first “exercise testing and exercise prescription digital therapeutic” product, the Shukang App is the world’s first digital therapeutic software for exercise prescriptions and the first digital therapeutic applied to cardiac rehabilitation.
Cardiorespiratory fitness is a key indicator of overall health and an important predictor of the progression of chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and chronic pain. Exercise prescription is the most scientifically effective approach to improving cardiorespiratory fitness. Therefore, building on the solid foundation of “exercise testing and exercise prescription digital therapeutics” as the “core evidence,” the development timeline for indication-specific digital therapeutic products and regulatory approval will be significantly shortened, thereby reducing trial-and-error costs.
Shukang has consistently remained dedicated to its own path of exploration and advancement, whether by becoming one of the first domestic companies to receive NMPA approval for its products or by securing U.S. insurance reimbursement for the world’s first R+ platform covering the entire process of cardiovascular disease intervention and treatment. This spirit of exploration will continue: the R+ platform has already integrated large language models, enabling artificial intelligence to handle highly repetitive tasks, thereby freeing up healthcare professionals’ time and energy so they can focus on high-complexity professional work and creative endeavors.
Currently, the R+ platform only integrates Shukang’s self-developed digital therapeutics (DTx) for cardiopulmonary exercise therapy, nutritional therapy, and neurocognitive therapy. However, previous collaborations—such as the co-development with Sanofi for hyperlipidemia patient management and the partnership with Changfeng for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treatment—have validated Shukang’s exploratory applications of R+ DTx in managing various diseases. If partners wish to embed their own software into the platform to work in conjunction with Shukang’s other DTx modules, this is also feasible following discussion and validation. Furthermore, Shukang’s existing DTx products can provide API interfaces for licensing or joint development with partners, assisting them in registering their own digital therapeutics and directly leveraging Shukang’s established expertise.
Shukang’s development is more focused on the entire industry, and it is willing to share its achievements with the industry.
“No individual’s development can be separated from the broader industry boom.” In closing remarks, a representative of Shukang told VCBeat, “Our products can bring health benefits to a limited number of patients. However, by leveraging our R+DTx model to build comprehensive disease-management platforms covering the entire care continuum, we can help more patients improve their health and quality of life through scientific approaches. Only with a greater proliferation of digital therapeutics products and a vibrant, diverse market can the industry develop in a healthier manner, creating a positive feedback loop for progress and growth. We look forward to enhanced communication and collaboration across the industry.”