Hejia Brain Health: Decades of Cutting-Edge Scientific Research Transformed into a Full-Course Digital Therapeutic Solution for Cognitive Disorders

From November 18 to 20, 2022, the 6th Hainan International Health Industry Expo was held as scheduled at the Hainan International Convention and Exhibition Center, attracting nearly 1,000 renowned healthcare-related organizations from around the world.

Xiamen Hejia JianNao Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Hejia JianNao”), a health technology enterprise specializing in cognitive digital medicine, was invited to exhibit. Its two flagship products—the Hejia Digital Brain Health Platform (online) and the Intelligent Cognitive Rehabilitation Assessment and Training Device (offline)—were successfully unveiled.

The exhibition attracted numerous attendees to experience the various services offered by the Hejia Digital Brain Health Platform. After trying out two of Hejia’s brain health products, both visitors and participating experts remarked that these products have opened up convenient avenues for the prevention and treatment of cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, and that their design and functionalities align well with current trends in modern digital healthcare.

Hejia Jiannao, established in 2016, specializes in digital healthcare services and digital prevention and treatment in the field of cognition.Its digital therapeutic product for dementia has currently obtained approval as a Class II medical device in China., with its main achievements awarded in 2019"Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award"(the highest award currently bestowed in the field of rehabilitation in China), and also won the “First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress” from the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine, as well as multiple first-prize awards at the provincial and ministerial levels.

Hejia Jiannao is currentlyThe Only Service Provider in China to Design and Implement a Comprehensive Prevention and Treatment Solution for Pilot Cities in National Cognitive Impairment Prevention and Control, has provided cognitive impairment prevention and control services to over 300,000 elderly individuals in Fujian Province, leveraging information technology and digital healthcare to assist government public health agencies and medical consortia in designing and developing comprehensive solutions for the prevention and management of dementia in the elderly.

Mr. Lei Biao, founder of Hejia Jiannao, brings nearly three decades of experience in the medical informatics industry and previously led a startup to its initial public offering (Yilianzhong, stock code: 300096). In 2017, a significant opportunity introduced him to two world-renowned neuroscience experts, Professor Chen Zhixuan and Professor Li Meizhen.

Professor Chen Zhixuan is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Chair Professor at The Education University of Hong Kong, and Vice-President of The Education University of Hong Kong. His primary research focus is on cognitive neuroscience within rehabilitation therapy. Additionally, Professor Chen serves as a member of the International Expert Group for the WHO ICF Core Sets for Vocational Rehabilitation, an international expert for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Vice Chairman of the Professional Committee on Brain Function Monitoring and Neuromodulation in Rehabilitation under the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine.

Professor Li Meizhen holds a Ph.D. in Psychology, serves as a doctoral supervisor and professor, and is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychology. She is also the Head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Hong Kong and the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Hong Kong. This laboratory is one of only two key state laboratories in China dedicated to the field of cognitive science.

Lei Biao, Chairman of Hejia Jiannao, told VCBeat: “We jointly observe that the aging society is accelerating its arrival, forcing the country to confront a surge in patients with cognitive impairment and dementia. Current screening methods for these conditions are inconvenient, heavily reliant on medical resources, and lack effective pharmacological treatments.”

“Professors and I considered that if we could combine their cutting-edge research in the field with my extensive business experience, we would have a significant opportunity to build a company dedicated to serving the elderly, addressing the nation’s aging population challenges, and alleviating pressure on the healthcare insurance system. Thus, Hejia Jiannao was born,” said Lei Biao.

Hejia Jiannao’s team also boasts robust R&D capabilities in medical informatics, with development experience covering 80% of the physical examination systems in Fujian Province. This enables the company to design and implement digital therapeutics solutions for healthcare, elderly care, and public health settings, as well as for medical consortia, while providing technical support. Additionally, the company has established a service team composed of professionals specializing in public health, geriatric health, and neuroscience, focusing extensively on health education for the prevention and management of cognitive disorders.

The two professors’ decades of scientific achievements and academic accumulation in the field of brain cognition, combined with the team’s extensive experience in industry-academia-research collaboration, have ensured that Hejia Jiannao consistently achieves successful implementation of its applied outcomes in the practice of digital therapeutics.

For cognitive impairment disorders, Hejia Jiannao has established a “123N” full-process prevention and treatment system, comprising “1 platform, 2 devices, 3 core components, and N applications.”

Specifically, Hejia Jiannao has developed two devices—the Cognitive Rehabilitation Assessment and Training Device and the Intelligent Cognitive Assessment Tablet—based on its intelligent cloud platform for brain health. It provides three core services: intelligent screening, medical-grade assessment, and rehabilitation training (digital therapeutics), covering multiple application scenarios including hospitals, community health service centers, elderly care institutions, communities, and home settings, thereby achieving“A closed-loop, whole-course medical service model encompassing screening, assessment, diagnosis, training, management, and evaluation.”

According to Lei Biao, clinical validation has shown thatHejia Brain Health Cognitive Screening demonstrates high sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value., higher than the generic scales currently used in public health screening. Meanwhile, elderly individuals can independently complete the screening via their mobile phones, which is highly convenient, does not consume physician resources, and meets the requirements of public health screening.“Low Cost, Broad Coverage, Sustainability”the needs of.

Hejia Brain Health also places great emphasis on professional assessment and diagnosis, leveraging the research achievements of its team of brain scientists to develop intervention plans that are more precisely tailored to patients’ conditions and maximize sustainable therapeutic effects. Currently, the Hejia Brain Health Intelligent Assessment System has been deployed in multiple Grade A tertiary hospitals, including Fujian Medical University Union Hospital and Fujian Provincial Rehabilitation Hospital.

In the field of digital therapeutics for rehabilitation training, Hejia Jiannao believes that:Compliance with purely online training programs is generally not high; the key to ensuring compliance lies in raising awareness and cultivating habits.This is particularly challenging for elderly individuals who have already developed early-stage cognitive impairment, as they often struggle to accept new approaches and encounter difficulties in operating smart devices.

In response, Hejia Jiannao has developed a Cognitive Assessment and Rehabilitation Training Device (which has obtained a Class II Medical Device Certificate). This device enables elderly individuals diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or early-stage Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) to undergo one to two weeks of adaptive training under the guidance of healthcare professionals in hospitals, elderly care institutions, or community health centers.

Lei Biao stated, “Only in this way will older adults have a higher level of acceptance and willingness to participate in training, enabling them to master training methods and develop habitual practice during this transitional period. Upon returning to community or home settings, they will be able to independently and proactively complete the entire course of training. It is only through the establishment of regular training habits that the benefits of the intervention can be fully realized.”

Additionally, Hejia Jiannao recognizes that companionship and care are equally important. Once enrolled in Hejia Jiannao’s closed-loop prevention and management system, Hejia health managers provide continuous brain health management for elderly individuals. Through guidance, encouragement, and compassionate support, they enhance training adherence among older adults and deliver comprehensive health management services addressing lifestyle, dietary habits, and other aspects.

“We have always believed that digital therapeutics targeting a specific diseaseIt falls within the realm of serious medicine and should adhere to rigorous clinical pathways.“Compared to purely gamified cognitive training, we place greater emphasis on how digital therapeutics can function within the healthcare system, and only then extend these medical-grade services to out-of-hospital community and home settings via internet-based platforms,” Lei Biao repeatedly emphasized.

For this reason, Hejia Jian Nao’s initial application scenarios were implemented in hospitals. It not only targets cognitive impairment caused by Alzheimer’s disease but also demonstrates significant training efficacy for various cognitive dysfunctions resulting from brain injuries, such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, and Parkinson’s disease. The proposed solution for integrating digital therapeutics with hospital information systems has already generated substantial revenue.

Notably, Hejia Jiannao is currently the only service provider in China that has designed and implemented a comprehensive suite of prevention and treatment solutions for cognitive impairment tailored to national pilot cities. It is currently delivering citywide cognitive impairment prevention and treatment services for the elderly in Yong’an, Sanming (a healthcare reform demonstration city), and Longyan (a national pilot city for dementia prevention and control).

When discussing project experience, Lei Biao told VCBeat that determining what the government, hospitals, community health service centers, and Jiajian Nao should each do during project implementation constitutes a highly complex systemic engineering endeavor.

Leveraging the projects in Yong’an and Longyan, Hejia Jiannao commissioned the Fujian Provincial Medical and Health System Reform Research Association to conduct “Research on Prevention and Control Strategies for Alzheimer’s Disease,” based on the prevention and control practices in Sanming and Yong’an. Adhering to scientific management principles, a comprehensive full-process management system was designed, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities for departments involved in project participation, implementation, supervision, and support.

Clearly, these valuable experiences will enable Hejia Jian Nao to participate in more urban service projects addressing the needs for dementia prevention and control.

In the short term, Hejia Jian Nao will continue to advance the deployment of cognitive disorder prevention and treatment services and cognitive rehabilitation medical devices. It will further develop benchmark G2G2C and H2H2C cases in key and demonstration cities, strengthen collaborations with research institutions, and complete national- and provincial-level research projects related to brain cognition.

Meanwhile, Hejia Jiannao will continue to explore models that leverage digital therapeutics to extend medical services from clinical and public health settings to elderly care institutions, communities, and home-based environments, thereby bringing Alzheimer’s disease prevention and control into every household. It will further enrich its knowledge base on cognitive disorder prevention and management, and establish a service content and system framework that provides sustained companionship for the elderly.

As a startup in a phase of rapid growth, operating within a sector with trillion-dollar market potential, Hejia Jiannao requires the addition of top-tier talent and capital support. The company is currently preparing for a new round of financing, aiming to digitally translate its scientific team’s numerous research achievements in the field of neuropsychology. Leveraging its service experience and channel advantages in the government, healthcare, and elderly care sectors, Hejia Jiannao seeks to rapidly deploy these applications in the market.

This is also highly consistent with Hejia Jian Nao’s long-term objective: to effectively address the societal challenges of dementia prevention and treatment in the context of population aging, by becoming a company centered on brain science that providesA digital healthcare company providing brain health solutions.