SinoUnited Health Unveils Next-Gen Digital Chronic Disease Management Platform 'Yao Health'

On June 16, 2023, Shanghai Yaoying Medical Management Co., Ltd. held the launch event for its next-generation chronic disease management product and the inaugural Healthcare Service Innovation Summit at the Peace Hotel in Shanghai. Themed “Innovation in All Things, People-Centered,” the conference invited experts from China and abroad across clinical practice, industry, market research, and investment sectors to jointly explore new models of digital chronic disease management in China.

At the event, Shanghai Yaoying Medical Management Co., Ltd. unveiled its next-generation digital chronic disease management product, “Yao Health,” which integrates high-quality medical technology, clinical expertise, digital solutions, and wearable devices. The product aims to leverage digital and intelligent tools to integrate all segments of the healthcare service supply chain, thereby enabling long-term patient care.

Press Conference Venue

Chronic disease management is a comprehensive and complex system that requires technical, feasible, and continuous intervention tailored to individual patients. It also necessitates active patient cooperation to achieve sustainable follow-up care and treatment. “The essence of chronic disease management lies in physicians providing support, empowering patients to take the wheel in driving their own health journey.”Dr. Shi Haoying, Founder and CEO of Yaoying Medical, and Director of the Department of Cardiovascular MedicineAs stated.

Based on this, “Yao Health” centers on its “Data to Decision (D2D)” model and innovatively integrates medical resources through a service ecosystem comprising “Yaoying’s high-quality healthcare, wearable devices, patient management services, and a patient management SaaS platform.” This approach creates an upgraded chronic disease management solution for families in need. Additionally, through customized collaboration models, it provides effective workplace health management for large enterprises, significantly reducing corporate healthcare costs and enhancing the human-centric care of smart cities.

Drawing on interviews with Shanghai Yaoying Medical Management Co., Ltd. and the current state of the digital chronic disease management market, VCBeat believes that the “newness” of “Yao Health” is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

First, the integration of information systems with wearable devices.“Yao Health” has built a SaaS platform that, leveraging informatics and wearable devices, provides digital chronic disease management services across online and offline channels as well as within and outside hospital settings, thereby enhancing patients’ healthcare experience. The system helps patients clearly understand their health goals for chronic disease management, data trends in disease progression, and key components of health management. It enables patients to know what actions to take next, when to take them, and the gap between their current health status and their targets, thus empowering them to actively engage in their own chronic disease management.

“Yao Health” provides chronic disease patients with wearable devices such as electronic blood pressure monitors, continuous glucose monitors, and smartwatches, tailored to different medical conditions. By enabling long-term, continuous acquisition of corresponding clinical data, it overcomes the temporal limitations of data collection and the management constraints on health data access and sharing inherent in traditional wearable devices. Furthermore, through multidisciplinary medical team services that integrate online and offline care, it breaks down the physical barriers patients face in accessing medical treatment.

Rich, detailed, and continuous medical data hold significant clinical importance. Dr. Shi Haoying believes: “Clinical diagnosis and treatment is essentially a process from Data to Decision (from data to clinical decision-making).Data is an essential basis for doctors to make correct decisions. Optimizing the D2D process not only improves the quality of medical services but also empowers physicians, enhancing their decision-making efficiency.

Second, it is supported by Yaoying Medical’s high-quality healthcare system.“Yaoying Health” embodies the concept of integrating medical care with prevention. Leveraging Shanghai Yaoying Medical’s comprehensive offline network of outpatient clinics and hospitals, it provides joint management by specialist physicians and chronic disease care teams. This approach enables systematic management of patients’ medical data and health records, facilitating a service upgrade from “treating patients” to “accompanying users,” thereby returning to the value-based healthcare model centered on “people-first.”

“Chronic disease management is a continuous process that cannot be conducted through online models alone; it requires the integration of online and offline approaches.”Zhang Binyun, Deputy Director of the Hospital Management Institute of Fudan University“Shanghai Yaoying Medical Management Co., Ltd, as a high-quality chain of medical service providers, leverages its physical hospitals and clinics to establish specialized centers in cardiology, endocrinology and metabolism, and thyroid care through a multidisciplinary ‘general practice + specialty’ collaboration model. Embracing digital advancements, the company has developed an accessible, integrated online-offline medical service system that implements the PDCA cycle, thereby creating a closed-loop framework for chronic disease management.”

Third, meet the personalized service needs of patients.Delivering services centered on patients’ health needs empowers individuals to take charge of their own health journeys. For instance, “Yaoying Health” provides personalized patient education and support, with healthcare professionals engaging patients through text, video, and other channels in one-on-one interactions. It offers tailored health goals and individualized treatment plans. By embracing the philosophy of high-end private medical institutions, it integrates medical care with service excellence, enabling patients to become the central agents in chronic disease management.

“Every digital innovation at Shanghai Yaoying Medical is designed to meet patient needs and deliver high-quality medical services to our clients.”Dr. Shi Haoying revealed,Yaoying Medical will continue to iterate on “Yao Health,” expanding the platform’s scope from its current focus on chronic disease management to include broader health management services such as sleep management and postoperative care. Meanwhile, it will actively integrate new technologies like artificial intelligence to advance digital chronic disease management toward intelligent solutions, such as enhancing intelligent risk预警 (early warning) capabilities.

It is worth mentioning that “Yaoying Health” has also made new explorations in addressing the payment challenges associated with chronic disease management.At the summit, Shanghai Yaoying Medical Management Co., Ltd. and international high-end insurance third-party administrative services organizationsMSH China(referred to as MSH, Chinese name: Wanxinhe) have entered into a strategic partnership, aiming to provide high-value medical services to customers through digital management solutions while reducing corporate health management costs.

Shanghai Yaoying Medical Management Co., Ltd. and MSH Launch Strategic Partnership

Global experience shows that chronic disease management services are characterized by high demand, broad scope, and long duration. To promote the development of these services, innovative collaboration among all stakeholders in the chronic disease management ecosystem is essential, including patients, physicians, hospitals, commercial insurance companies, and internet healthcare platforms. This summit brought together multiple service providers from the chronic disease management ecosystem, fostering an industry dialogue focused on innovation in chronic disease medical services.

Panelists (from left to right): Sun Motao, Vice President at Qiming Venture Partners; Chen Qirui, Founder and Chairman of Yixuejie; Shi Haoying, Founder and CEO of Shanghai Yaoying Medical Management Co., Ltd. (Shanghai United Family Healthcare) and Director of the Department of Cardiology; Zhang Yuanjia, Founder and CEO of MSH CHINA; Xia Xiaofei, Global Partner at Mercer and General Manager of Mercer Insurance Brokers (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.; Ye Weitao, Managing Partner at Lize Capital and User Representative of “Yao Health”; and Professor Zhang Zhenyu, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of KU Leuven, Doctoral Supervisor, and Internist, participating online.

First, the panelists reached a consensus that digital technologies play a significant empowering role for both patients and physicians. These technologies can deliver better treatment outcomes and healthcare experiences for patients while addressing challenges related to patient adherence. Furthermore, as tools for physicians, they enhance clinical efficiency and reduce hospital management costs.

Panelists also noted that the deep integration of chronic disease management and health insurance has become an industry trend. Empowered by digital technologies, chronic disease management service providers can match patients with more scientific and effective health management plans, and leverage data-driven services to encourage users to take a more proactive role in disease management, thereby achieving superior outcomes in chronic disease care. On the other hand, health management is no longer positioned merely as a value-added or ancillary insurance service; amid the industry’s digital transformation, while being embedded into insurance offerings, health management is also reshaping the value chain of insurance products.

At the conclusion of the meeting,Qu Shen, Executive Director of the Shanghai Thyroid Disease Research Center and Director of the Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Thyroid Center at Shanghai Yaoying MedicalHe provided a concise yet profound summary. He noted that with socioeconomic development and rising living standards, the disease spectrum among Chinese residents has undergone significant changes, with both the prevalence of existing chronic diseases and the number of new cases continuing to rise. Shanghai Yaoying Medical Management Co., Ltd., distinguished by its commitment to high-quality healthcare, has leveraged advanced technologies and a team of highly skilled physicians to implement digital chronic disease management, thereby establishing a sustainable long-term mechanism for chronic disease management tailored to the Chinese population.

The guests at this conference come from diverse professional fields, including clinical practice, industry, insurance, and investment. Although their work content and focus differ, they are all united in seeking the best solutions for patients with chronic diseases. We believe that the efforts of innovators in the healthcare industry today will pave the way for more and better medical solutions, thereby transforming the life trajectories of individuals.