Shenzhen Zuobiao Software Files IPO Prospectus: 18 Years of Empowering Over 5,000 Hospitals with Innovative Healthcare IT Solutions

In the landscape of healthcare informatization, 18-year-old Zuobiao Software appears “unassuming,” with little presence on social networks and in the media; however, its significant position within the industry cannot be overlooked.

This healthcare IT company employs over 1,400 staff members, 80% of whom are engineers. Its three founders, all with engineering backgrounds, advocate a problem-solving-oriented work culture. Over the past 18 years, they have led Shenzhen Zuobiao Software Development Co., Ltd. to “quietly” provide management consulting and comprehensive IT solutions to more than 5,000 hospitals (cumulative) across China.

In 2023, while producing the special report “Digital Transformation of Healthcare: Low-Code,” VCBeat discovered that iHealthOne, the new-generation healthcare information operating system released by Zuobiao Software in 2018, had already incorporated low-code platform infrastructure capabilities. To gain insights into the value and effectiveness of low-code platforms in its healthcare information systems, VCBeat held an open dialogue with a team of engineers from Zuobiao Software.

Although Shenzhen Zuobiao Software Development Co., Ltd. was established in 2005, it had already begun its work in medical informatics as early as 2001, launching a Hospital Information System (HIS) designed for in-hospital use with “financial management” as its core thread.

Around 2005, in response to the growing demand from hospitals for business systems such as physician order processing, laboratory and imaging examinations, and electronic medical records (EMR), Shenzhen Zuobiao Software Development Co., Ltd. introduced a client/server (C/S) architecture and modular product design, “enabling hospitals to add functional modules one by one, like stacking building blocks, when deploying new business systems.” At that time, the concept of low-code platforms had not yet been proposed, but this design philosophy was already being implemented by Zuobiao Software.

In 2014, the renowned consulting and research firm Forrester introduced the concept of low-code/no-code. In the same year, Zuobiao Software developed the first generation of its Cloud HIS health cloud platform, and two years later, it became one of the first companies to propose the development of Cloud HIS products based on a microservices architecture.Du Guoxian, R&D Director of Zuobiao Software and Assistant to the CTOIntroduction: The impetus for technological iteration stems from Shenzhen Zuobiao Software Development Co., Ltd.’s understanding of the industry’s current landscape and evolving trends.

Shenzhen Zuobiao Software Development Co., Ltd. believes that healthcare informatization is essentially a tool and means, serving the daily operational and management activities of medical institutions, and playing a significant role in the overall coordination and detailed control within hospitals. However, due to various reasons, legacy systems within hospitals are complex and lack interoperability, while emerging new requirements can only be addressed by adding functionalities onto older-generation integration architectures. This has led to increasing pressure on hospital informatization construction and severe resource waste.

“As new technologies such as cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence are increasingly applied in healthcare settings, the boundaries of hospital medical services will become more blurred, collaboration will become more frequent, and higher requirements will be placed on the accessibility and availability of information.” Shenzhen Zuobiao Software Development Co., Ltd. believes that, under these circumstances, hospitals require a stable, efficient, highly adaptable, and continuously iterable core platform architecture to build a comprehensive informatization system that supports the overall innovation and development of medical services.

Following a thorough analysis and careful deliberation of the current IT landscape, Shenzhen Zuobiao Software Development Co., Ltd. believes that a microservices-based distributed architecture naturally aligns with the business requirements and development trends of healthcare informatization. Therefore, the company has decided to simplify complexity by building a unified integration platform foundation, transforming business system modules into microservices, and abstracting them into independent micro-applications that grow on the platform. Healthcare institutions can subscribe to these services on demand, achieving out-of-the-box usability, thereby enhancing overall operational efficiency and fostering the integration of technology and business operations.

In 2022, Shenzhen Zuobiao Software Development Co., Ltd. released iHealthOne, a new-generation healthcare informatics platform. Built on middle-platform technology and a microservices architecture, the platform incorporates standardized specifications, standard functionalities, and an authoritative medical knowledge base. Leveraging the low-code infrastructure of the iHealthOne OS, it enables engineers and users to collaboratively build and enhance the system.

According to Du Guoxian, the core architectural philosophy of iHealthOne is centered on middle-platform thinking. Technically, it constitutes an integrated architecture encompassing technology, business, and data, emphasizing commonalities and reusability while possessing capabilities for self-learning and self-evolution. Distinct from the reuse concepts in traditional application architectures, it strives to achieve dynamic reusability driven by user needs, thereby enabling timely responses to frequent business changes.

iHealthOne consists of a foundational platform, three mid-end platforms, and N applications.

The foundational platform innovatively incorporates a built-in “low-code development platform” and an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) for data interoperability. By adopting next-generation microservices architectures, such as service mesh and cloud-native technologies, it fully leverages the elasticity and distributed advantages of cloud computing. This positions the platform as the technical ecosystem foundation for healthcare informatization, equipped with secondary development capabilities, an interoperability integration platform gateway, and open business API functionalities.

iHealthOne OS, the Healthcare Operating System Middle Platform, encompasses business middle-platform capabilities for interconnecting the healthcare industry ecosystem, data middle-platform capabilities for accumulating value in the medical domain, and technical middle-platform capabilities for intensifying R&D, delivery, and operations. It is dedicated to building a comprehensive healthcare technology R&D ecosystem, driving innovation in the “Healthcare + Internet” model, and significantly enhancing software development efficiency.

In terms of application, the platform fully considers characteristics such as universality, reusability, and scalability. It consolidates and extracts reusable data, knowledge, processes, and rules, providing developers with relatively comprehensive foundational applications—such as User Center, Appointment Center, Order Center, and Payment/Message/Log Centers. Furthermore, it is deeply customized for healthcare scenarios, abstracting various business knowledge base models. Developers can leverage the capabilities of the iHealthOne API Open Platform to customize or independently develop healthcare software applications according to their specific needs.

The application configuration capabilities of the iHealthOne next-generation healthcare informatics platform were fully demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Leveraging its iHealthOne OS business middle platform, the system rapidly configured software products tailored to practical needs—such as internet hospitals, large-scale nucleic acid testing collection systems, and online lightweight consultation services—effectively supporting societal epidemic prevention and control efforts.

Wang Haitao, Director of Operations and Maintenance; Director of iHO DeliveryIntroduction: Hospitals of different types vary in their social functions, clinical services, and level of specialized complexity; consequently, their needs for healthcare informatization also differ. Large tertiary Grade A hospitals prioritize “refined division of labor, process-oriented management, and closed-loop workflows,” whereas primary healthcare institutions place greater emphasis on simplified, efficient, one-stop medical solutions.

Therefore, in serving small and medium-sized medical institutions and privately run healthcare providers, Zuobiao Software promotes the SaaS-based and cloud-enabled transformation of its medical products. This includes micro-application innovations such as the Mobile Hospital SaaS Edition, Cloud CRM SaaS Edition, Cloud Physical Examination SaaS Edition, and Rational Drug Use Knowledge Base SaaS Service, making “out-of-the-box” usability for medical software a reality. Practical experience has shown that, compared with traditional delivery models, the “out-of-the-box” approach reduces project implementation cycles from 3–6 months to 1–3 months, improving delivery efficiency by 200%.

Currently, the iHealthOne next-generation healthcare information platform by Zuobiao Software has been deployed and gone live in dozens of Grade II Class A and Grade III hospitals across China, with stable operation.

Wang Haitao stated that the essence of low-code is to better address user problems, thereby reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and optimizing resource allocation. While this technological tool enhances productivity, it will inevitably drive changes in production relations, specifically organizational transformation within enterprises. “From the demand side, hospitals previously purchased off-the-shelf software; now they are acquiring tools that enable joint research and development with enterprises. This reflects an advancement in development models.”

However, low-code applications as a whole remain in an exploratory phase. Their implementation in hospitals still faces numerous challenges, such as balancing standardization with customization, flexibility with stability, development by professionals with configuration by non-technical staff, and the trade-offs among the functionality, performance, and stability of low-code platforms versus user experience.

It is worth noting that Zuobiao Software also supports technology openness. iHealthOne covers the entire field of healthcare informatization and is committed to integrating the whole industry chain. We sincerely invite industry partners from hospitals, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, insurance, research institutions, finance, and internet enterprises to join hands in building a healthy China industrial ecosystem.

From the initial HIS to Cloud HIS, and then to iHealthOne, the engineering culture of “prioritizing technological innovation, keenly identifying emerging needs, and rapidly responding with new technologies” has become the driving force behind the iterative development of Zuobiao Software’s products. It is precisely this foundational core competency and capability that have enabled Zuobiao Software to grow into one of the leading brands in China’s healthcare informatization sector.

InWang Xianfu, Department Manager of the Planning Department at Shenzhen Zuobiao Software Development Co., Ltd.It appears that Zuobiao Software’s ability to carve out new ground in the field of healthcare informatics and refine and launch its iHealthOne next-generation healthcare informatics platform solution stems precisely from its 18 years of diligent focus and persistence. Currently, a consensus has formed around the theme of high-quality development in public hospitals, with hospital “digital” transformation accelerating toward “digital-intelligent” evolution. Meanwhile, trends such as IT application innovation for domestic substitution (Xinchuang) and IoT-enabled healthcare are driving profound changes in the healthcare informatics sector. The low-code development capabilities of iHealthOne are poised to deliver breakthrough empowerment to a broad user base, injecting new vitality into China’s Health Information Technology (HIT) market.

For 18 years, Zuobiao Software has consistently chosen to “put all its eggs in the single basket of healthcare informatization”: channeling its limited resources and efforts into a sufficiently focused business line to maximize competitiveness and deliver outstanding products and solutions. In a somewhat impetuous business environment, this steadfast commitment is invaluable.