Jiuzhi Health Aims to Become China's 'Ring King' in the Wearable Health Monitoring Boom
The Wearable Medical Device Market Becomes a Hot Prospect, with Internet Giants and Medical Device Companies Vying to Enter
The core logic behind wearable medical devices is to provide intuitive physiological data and dynamic trend information through continuous monitoring of basic vital signs, thereby facilitating early screening, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases, while integrating comprehensive lifecycle management both within and outside healthcare institutions. The Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 also highlights the development of proactive health intervention technologies as a key frontier in clinical medicine and health research, and includes next-generation wearable devices in digital application scenarios.
Recently, the "2022 Chinese Clinical Practice Guidelines for Hypertension," jointly developed by the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, and other parties, was released. Among its key updates, the diagnostic threshold for hypertension in Chinese adults has been lowered from 140/90 mmHg to 130/80 mmHg. This reduction in the diagnostic criterion is expected to double the number of diagnosed patients, potentially reaching nearly 500 million, thereby creating greater market opportunities for continuous blood pressure monitoring.
Scientific research breakthroughs have become a highlight in the wearable medical device market. Among these advancements, a research team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, with years of dedicated expertise in the hardware and software development of biomedical systems, has developed wearable devices capable of continuous monitoring of multiple vital signs in various forms. Currently, the first-generation health-monitoring smart ring by JIUZHI Technology is poised for launch via overseas crowdfunding campaigns.
Professor Wang Guoxing, founder of JIUZHI Technology, spent over a decade paving the way for bringing products from the laboratory to the market.
Since returning to China in 2009, Professor Wang Guoxing has spearheaded the establishment of the Bio-Circuits and Systems Laboratory at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Starting from scratch, his team has progressively delved into technical fields such as energy-efficient integrated circuit design, biomedical electronics, and bio-AI chips. The team has received numerous international awards and published more than 200 academic papers in top-tier international conferences and journals, including ISSCC, which is known as the “Olympics of the Chip Industry.”
Professor Wang Guoxing previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the internationally renowned journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, and currently holds the position of Vice President of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. Despite his remarkable achievements in scientific research, Professor Wang, who has worked at major enterprises both in China and abroad, remains committed to translating research into practical product applications. His extensive experience across both industry and academia has endowed him with the scholarly dedication to rigorous exploration, as well as keen industrial insight and strong execution capabilities.
Leveraging Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s robust entrepreneurship ecosystem, Professor Wang Guoxing formally established Guangdong Jiuzhi Technology Co., Ltd. in July 2021, rapidly assembling a multidisciplinary team of experts spanning artificial intelligence, chip design, clinical medicine, medical devices, electronic engineering, and business management.Leveraging its proprietary core technologies, including low-power biosignal acquisition chip design and bioinformatics processing algorithms, JIUZHI is developing a new generation of wearable health monitoring devices by focusing on precision hardware design and intelligent health algorithms.
To date, JIUZHI has established R&D centers in Shenzhen and Zhongshan. The company has built a robust patent portfolio, with 26 independent intellectual property rights applications covering hardware, algorithms, industrial design, and software. Among these, three invention patents, one utility model patent, four design patents, and one software copyright have been granted.
Robust “technical prowess” has enabled JIUZHI Technology to launch a viableRingConn: A Smart Ring Product Offering 24/7 Health Monitoring for Seven Consecutive Days, will be listed on the overseas Indiegogo crowdfunding platform at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time on November 22 (1:00 a.m. Beijing Time on November 23).
In terms of product performance, JIUZHI’s first-generation smart ring enables continuous monitoring of basic health metrics, including heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, heart rate variability (HRV), skin temperature, respiratory rate, and activity status. It further deepens its application in the field of sleep health, providing users with detailed sleep status analysis and health risk warnings.
Unlike the smart rings currently on the market, JIUZHI’s RingConn smart ring provides true continuous, real-time health monitoring, with significant improvements in metric performance. Taking blood oxygen monitoring as an example, the RingConn smart ring autonomously measures the user’s blood oxygen levels every five minutes, rather than merely displaying an average value for a given time period.
Continuous and accurate blood oxygen monitoring is of great significance for the early warning of many diseases, such as Obstructive Sleep Apnea-Hypopnea Syndrome (OSAHS). Some individuals with snoring disorders suffer from OSAHS, which not only affects patients' sleep quality but also can lead to refractory hypertension, stroke, coronary heart disease, and even sudden death due to long-term recurrent hypoxia.
Generally, individuals with snoring disorders require professional polysomnography (PSG) in hospitals for the diagnosis and grading of obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). However, currently, only tertiary hospitals in large and medium-sized cities, or some secondary hospitals, can provide standardized diagnosis and treatment for OSAHS, resulting in a large number of patients failing to receive timely diagnosis and treatment. JIUZHI Technology is collaborating with Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, on clinical research for OSAHS diagnosis, exploring the application model of the RingConn smart ring in initial screening for OSAHS among large populations both inside and outside hospital settings.
In terms of product design, JIUZHI’s RingConn smart ring is lighter and thinner, offering a superior wearing experience.To fully showcase the ring’s fashion appeal and emotional resonance, the team specially engaged a French designer to complete its industrial design. Unlike smart bands, the ring must deliver comprehensive monitoring capabilities within a much more compact form factor while ensuring long-lasting battery life—a perfect application for JIUZHI Technology’s low-power circuit design expertise.
In addition to the launch of its first-generation product in late November, JIUZHI Technology is also strategizing its future product roadmap. Continuous blood pressure monitoring will serve as the core competitive advantage of its upcoming products.
Continuous blood pressure monitoring has long been a critical unmet need in clinical practice and remains a world-class challenge in the field of health monitoring. Among the four vital signs—respiration, pulse, body temperature, and blood pressure—blood pressure is currently the only one that cannot be measured non-invasively and continuously via wearable devices. Traditional ambulatory blood pressure monitors based on oscillometry not only have long measurement intervals (typically once every 20–30 minutes), but the cuff inflation and deflation process also significantly disrupts patients’ sleep. Consequently, these devices are currently primarily used in intensive care units (ICUs) for real-time blood pressure management in high-risk patients.
However, for many patients with hypertension, continuous blood pressure monitoring in daily life is equally important. Abnormal changes in blood pressure serve as a “signal” for many diseases or sudden medical events.
Professor Wang Guoxing’s team has accumulated over eight years of experience in the system design and algorithm development for cuffless continuous blood pressure monitoring, with related findings published in multiple academic journals and international conferences. The PPG-based blood pressure monitoring chip has been updated to its third generation, demonstrating significant advantages in low power consumption and noise optimization.
JIUZHI’s smart ring is built on an innovative fingertip PPG acquisition system, capturing PPG signals with more subtle blood flow characteristics. Leveraging its proprietary blood pressure calculation algorithm, the device enables continuous, unobtrusive blood pressure monitoring, integrated with sleep and heart health assessments. According to Professor Wang Guoxing, JIUZHI plans to launch a medical-grade blood pressure monitoring ring in the future.
Leveraging its proprietary core technologies, JIUZHI has established a presence in the wearable health device sector, dedicated to creating products that add value to life and health, and providing integrated assisted diagnosis and treatment solutions centered on its proprietary devices. Throughout its development, the company has successively forged partnerships with clinical institutions, pharmaceutical companies, insurance providers, and other stakeholders, facilitating the deployment of its products across both consumer (C-end) and business (B-end) markets.
JIUZHI is launching a new round of financingThe funds raised will be allocated to mass production of the company’s products, marketing initiatives, and new product development. We aim to attract more like-minded partners to join hands with us on the path toward digital health monitoring!