TanShi Health Files IPO Prospectus: Bridging Consumer-Grade and Medical-Grade Digital Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation

Whether during the years spent diligently developing surgical robots in U.S. laboratories, or now in China, where digital tools are leveraged to disseminate knowledge on musculoskeletal rehabilitation and provide customized rehab services, Yin Ruiqing, founder of Tanshijia Health, has remained true to his original aspiration: making high-quality medical resources readily accessible.

Chronic musculoskeletal pain is the most common type of chronic pain in clinical practice. Epidemiological data indicate an overall prevalence rate of 24.9% for chronic pain. Chronic pain is more prevalent among individuals aged over 40, with a particularly high proportion observed in those aged over 60. However, there is also a rising trend in incidence among individuals under 30 years of age, with an increasing prevalence of chronic pain conditions such as low back pain among young adults aged 20–29.

Due to the frequent occurrence and difficulty of achieving a radical cure for chronic pain, individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain tend to opt for services that offer high sustainability and accessibility; however, existing solutions remain inadequate.At the clinical level, orthopedic surgeries are highly invasive and costly, while rehabilitation medical resources are scarce; at the consumer level, offline rehabilitation and fitness centers charge high fees and are difficult to standardize, whereas massage and acupuncture lack sustainability.

“The current challenge in the chronic musculoskeletal pain treatment industry lies in the contradiction between the demand for high-quality medical services and their supply.” In Yin Ruiqing’s view, digital healthcare services represent the optimal solution for patients with chronic pain. Traditional offline hospitals or institutions struggle to achieve rapid nationwide coverage and face certain limitations in terms of treatment duration and implementation complexity. In contrast, digital service products can not only extend their reach across China and even globally but also deliver standardized, high-quality medical care.

For Yin Ruiqing, this was a cross-disciplinary endeavor. Whether in his studies or career, he has consistently explored the realm of “hard tech.” He earned a master’s degree in robotics from Johns Hopkins University under the supervision of Professor Russell H. Taylor and joined a U.S. startup to research surgical robots upon graduation. For several years, he meticulously refined every detail and design in the laboratory. While he experienced the joy of solving complex problems, he also felt a sense of “emptiness” due to the lack of clinical application over an extended period.

The value of surgical robots is undeniable, but there is still a long way to go from the laboratory to clinical practice. Furthermore, their eventual widespread adoption from top-tier tertiary hospitals to grassroots medical institutions requires coordinated efforts across multiple sectors, including overall healthcare standards, policy frameworks, and economic conditions.

Unlike the traditional medical device market, which is characterized by high investment requirements and challenging promotion, digital health offers significant advantages in accessibility, facilitating the rapid enhancement of overall healthcare standards and the improvement of end-to-end disease management. In particular, the pandemic has accelerated the global development of digital health. For instance, Hinge Health, a U.S.-based company specializing in digital musculoskeletal rehabilitation, has attracted substantial investor interest: after securing $90 million in Series C funding in 2020, it raised $310 million in Series D and $400 million in Series E funding in 2021.

Choosing the broad direction of digital healthcare, changing careers, and returning to China were decisions Yin Ruiqing made at the end of 2020. Driven by the aspiration to “make high-quality medical resources universally accessible,”He assembled a multidisciplinary team of experts in artificial intelligence, high-end medical services, and rehabilitation medicine to establish Tanshijia Health, aiming to leverage digital technologies to shift the timing of disease diagnosis and treatment earlier.

The decision to focus on the field of musculoskeletal pain was primarily driven by the fact that, compared with other chronic diseases, pain management yields rapid therapeutic effects, which helps improve user adherence and strengthen their willingness to pay. Moreover, digital musculoskeletal rehabilitation relies on the intrinsic value of the software itself, such as guided exercise routines and assessment guidance, rather than merely providing execution instructions like dietary control and general exercise, as is often the case in weight management.

In the field of digital musculoskeletal rehabilitation, the core logic of Tanshijia Health’s product planning isProductizing High-Quality Medical Services. Musculoskeletal rehabilitation services are primarily categorized into three components: psychological adjustment, physical therapy, and patient education, supplemented by device-based therapies such as infrared therapy and shockwave therapy. The company plans to adopt a hybrid model combining online software services with offline device-based treatments to provide services including health education, digital assessment, guided exercise routines, and psychological counseling, thereby integrating the entire user journey in musculoskeletal rehabilitation.

Tanshijia Health has launched the “Halftime” online mini-program, offering rehabilitation courses, posture assessments, and personalized services. It tailors individualized rehabilitation programs based on users’ postural characteristics and musculoskeletal pain issues. By combining professional rehabilitation therapists with artificial intelligence algorithms, it provides real-time guidance to help users independently perform rehabilitation exercises anytime and anywhere. The company’s self-developed AI algorithm can capture users’ movements in real time and analyze training progress, turning smartphones into an “AI Personal Rehabilitation Coach.”

The advantages of digital healthcare lie in its high accessibility and standardization; however, online services also face challenges such as low user stickiness and difficulties in quantifying and evaluating outcomes. The inherent authority of offline medical institutions, coupled with visualized test results, helps ensure patients’ strict adherence to medical advice. In contrast, online medical services struggle to strictly “constrain” users, focusing instead on encouragement to enhance user experience.

The solutions provided by Tanshijia Health are more reflected in product details. Yin Ruiqing proposed,Establish positive feedback loops as quickly and extensively as possible.AI automatically captures user movements, providing an encouraging sound effect for each correct action. Upon completion of daily training, a points-based system or reward mechanism delivers an immersive, game-like experience. After users adhere to the training regimen for a certain period, quantitative and visualized outcomes are presented through objective metrics.

Taking patients with frozen shoulder as an example, the system regularly assesses users’ ability to raise their shoulders to specific angles and perform designated movements, then generates reports that correlate user progress with software-guided training, thereby enhancing user engagement.

Meanwhile, sports rehabilitation encompasses stretching exercises and workouts. The former primarily offers relaxation and comfort, while the latter is more challenging and often less enjoyable during the training process. Tanshijia Health tags all movements in its database, ensuring that stretching and workouts are interspersed when designing programs for users. This approach provides timely relaxation alongside progressive increases in difficulty.

Quantitative changes in details ultimately lead to qualitative transformation., which is the core of Tanshijia Health's user attraction strategy. To provide a gamified, highly interactive user experience, Tanshijia Health is also planning to develop its own proprietary app. In addition to software services, Tanshijia Health is developing intelligent, miniaturized smart physiotherapy products, aiming to integrate functions such as electrical stimulation, infrared therapy, and even hot/cold compresses into a single device, which can be linked with software services through data connectivity.

Currently, Tanshijia Health’s business primarily targets the consumer (C-end) market, with a clearly defined user profile. In response to digital rehabilitation needs, the company has identified white-collar workers, blue-collar workers, and the stable middle class among individuals suffering from musculoskeletal pain as its target customer segments. These three groups also constitute the backbone of the workforce and exhibit higher health-related consumer spending.Since the launch of its self-operated social media accounts three months ago, the company has amassed 200,000 followers and achieved a certain degree of commercial conversion. Meanwhile, the company is also expanding its B2B channels by establishing partnerships with third-party service providers, commercial insurance companies, and other relevant enterprises.

Since its establishment in 2021, Tanshijia Health has enjoyed relatively smooth development, rapidly deploying consumer-facing (C-end) channels and successfully completing a multi-million-yuan angel financing round led by Yuanyi Capital. However, the company will not rest on its laurels in the consumer sector; the team has always adhered to the principle thatWhile maintaining the high accessibility and convenience of consumer-grade products for individual users, it is essential to uphold a core grounded in rigorous clinical evidence-based medicine.Digital healthcare: digitalization is the means, while evidence-based medicine is the foundation. Currently,The company has established collaborations with several hospitals in China to jointly advance the clinical validation of medical-grade digital therapeutics products.

Yin Ruiqing stated, “Our initial B2C efforts enabled us to rapidly accumulate user feedback and gain insights into market opportunities. Going forward, the company will establish a solid foothold and build data advantages by starting with the consumer segment, while gradually exploring more rigorous commercialization scenarios such as hospital-based applications. At the product level, we will adhere to the clinical practices and underlying logic of evidence-based medicine, complemented by internet-driven product thinking and methodologies.”

Reference: Expert Consensus on the Management of Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain