Shanghai Yibo Medical Group Files IPO Prospectus: Building a Leading Functional Neurosurgery Chain Focused on Cerebral Palsy and Hemiplegia

In China, the disabled population has always been a “minority group” that cannot be ignored.

According to data from the Rehabilitation Department of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, there are currently more than 85 million people with disabilities in China, accounting for 6.34% of the total population. Among them, there are approximately 7 million cumulative cases of cerebral palsy, about 23 million cases of hemiplegia, around 2 million cases of paraplegia, roughly 1.4 million cases of obstetric paralysis, approximately 10 million young people with spinal deformities, and about 6 million patients with active epilepsy. Furthermore, multiple studies indicate that the current prevalence of cerebral palsy among newborns is around 2‰. Given China’s annual number of live births, this translates to more than 10,000 new cases of infantile cerebral palsy each year.

Although the patient population continues to grow, it is regrettable that clinical treatment for these patients has long been fraught with numerous challenges.

Taking the treatment of patients with cerebral palsy as an example, on one hand, clinical supply resources struggle to meet the growing patient demand. Moreover, most patients require additional surgeries within specific timeframes to achieve better therapeutic outcomes, further exacerbating the imbalance between supply and demand.

On the other hand, current treatments for cerebral palsy often involve multiple disciplines, including neurosurgery and orthopedics, requiring experts from various fields to collaboratively develop and implement treatment plans through a Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) approach. However, in traditional healthcare systems, weak interdepartmental coordination makes it difficult to standardize treatment protocols, and the prolonged treatment cycle further hinders the effective implementation of the MDT model.

Recognizing these issues, Dr. Sun Chengyan, who had previously served in the Department of Neurosurgery at Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University and the Department of Functional Neurosurgery at Tongren Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, decided to leave the public healthcare system in 2015 and founded “Shanghai Yibo Doctor Group,” the first physician group in China dedicated to serving patients with limb disabilities and function-related disorders.

Over the past six years, this physician group has assembled a team of experts from various specialties, including orthopedics, peripheral nerve surgery, hand surgery, pediatric orthopedics, and spinal and spinal deformity surgery. It has successfully established a multidisciplinary collaborative team with complementary technical advantages, performing more than 700 surgeries annually. In May last year, Yibo Physician Group opened its first physical hospital, Shanghai Yibo Hospital, in Shanghai. The hospital achieved profitability within just six months of operation, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.

So, how does Yibo Hospital differ from traditional specialized hospitals? Where do its service characteristics lie? How has the Yibo Doctors Group achieved its current series of accomplishments? And how will it develop in the future? With these questions in mind, VCBeat recently conducted an exclusive interview with Dr. Sun Chengyan, founder of the Yibo Doctors Group, aiming to answer the above questions.

On the other end of the line came the voice of Dr. Sun Chengyan, speaking at a slightly slower pace with a calm and composed tone, perfectly aligning with the public’s perception of the steady demeanor typical of clinical experts.

Subsequently, Dr. Sun Chengyan briefly introduced his professional journey: from Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, to the Sichuan Bayi Rehabilitation Center, then to Tongren Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai Punan Hospital, and finally to his current position at Yibo Hospital.

Dr. Sun Chengyan, Founder of Yibo Doctor Group

As a physician expert with many years of clinical practice, Dr. Sun Chengyan formerly served as the head of the cerebral palsy specialty program at Huashan Hospital and as Director of Functional Neurosurgery at Tongren Hospital and Punan Hospital, earning recognition from his peers for his medical expertise. He was also appointed by the Shanghai Municipal Organization Department to serve as President and Deputy Party Secretary of the Sichuan Bayi Rehabilitation Center, where he oversaw comprehensive hospital operations and management. During his two-year tenure, he quadrupled the hospital’s revenue.

Upon returning from his aid work in building up the Bayi Rehabilitation Center, Dr. Sun Chengyan resolutely declined a lucrative position at Huashan Hospital and chose to embark on the path of entrepreneurship. This decision was driven by two main factors: first, the hospital had too few beds relative to the high demand for treatment, resulting in perennial waiting lists, with some patients scheduled for appointments more than 18 months in advance; second, he aimed to adopt a patient-centered approach, providing multidisciplinary collaborative diagnosis and treatment to further improve therapeutic outcomes.

Based on this, Dr. Sun Chengyan began to build and cultivate his own team of medical, nursing, rehabilitation, and operational management professionals at Shanghai Punan Hospital. Patients continued to flock in such large numbers that the hospital ultimately had to convert its parking lot into an expanded rehabilitation area.

After six years of refinement, Dr. Sun Chengyan once again chose to pivot, deciding to build a physical hospital for himself and his team. The team underwent another round of trials, spanning site selection, construction, renovation, application for hospital qualifications, and the eventual opening. To raise capital, Dr. Sun made the bold decision to sell his property in Shanghai, going all in. This move demonstrated not only his strong confidence in the venture but also his commitment to delivering results for the colleagues who had stood by him. Finally, in May 2021, they successfully launched their first physical hospital—Shanghai Yibo Hospital.

Throughout his journey, Dr. Sun Chengyan has become known for his relentless drive and willingness to take on challenges. In his twenties and thirties, he focused on refining his expertise in functional neurosurgery. At age thirty-five, he began traveling extensively to perform surgical procedures at various hospitals—a practice that continued for over a decade—during which time he also carried out extensive charitable work. At fifty, he resigned from a top-tier tertiary hospital to establish the Shanghai Yibo Doctor Group. During its most difficult period, the group consisted of only himself as the sole physician, nine nurses, and just one patient occupying the entire ward.

From his past experiences, we can see that Dr. Sun Chengyan is not only an industry expert with excellent medical skills and a compassionate heart as a physician, but also possesses the qualities of a successful entrepreneur: innovation, pragmatism, resilience, risk-taking, overcoming difficulties, and staying true to his original mission.

Shanghai Yibo Hospital is currently distinguished by its specialized treatment of cerebral palsy and hemiplegia. Although the physical hospital has been established for a relatively short period, it has secured the top position in the Haodf Online ranking of specialized hospitals for cerebral palsy, driven by positive patient reviews. Meanwhile, Dr. Sun Chengyan has consistently ranked first among physicians in this specialty on Haodf Online for 12 consecutive years. Due to high patient satisfaction with Yibo’s therapeutic outcomes, the majority of current patients are referred by former patients or independently seek out the hospital through third-party internet platforms.

Leveraging its professional influence in the treatment of cerebral palsy, the Yibo team has undertaken charitable assistance and government-sponsored projects across multiple provinces since 2008. These initiatives include medical aid for children with cerebral palsy in the three Northeastern provinces and Inner Mongolia in 2008, assistance for affected children in Sichuan in 2010, large-scale free clinics for pediatric cerebral palsy patients in Wenzhou and Hubei in 2011 and 2012, and the assumption of cerebral palsy relief efforts in Anhui Province in 2018.

In addition to cerebral palsy, the team also possesses exceptional medical expertise in the fields of hemiplegia and paraplegia. In 2013, it successfully performed Asia’s first spinal cord electrical stimulation procedure for the treatment of paraplegia. In 2016, it achieved satisfactory therapeutic outcomes in the world’s first application of fusion technology to treat “paralyzed hands” in patients with upper-limb hemiplegia. These achievements were separately reported by Dragon TV and Shanghai News General.

In terms of healthcare service delivery, to provide patients with a better medical experience and higher-quality treatment plans, the Yibo team has adopted a multidisciplinary team (MDT) model that integrates neurosurgery, orthopedics, rehabilitation medicine, and other specialties. This approach enables independent assessment for each patient and the provision of more targeted, personalized diagnosis and treatment plans. Over the past two decades of clinical practice, this model has been proven effective in treating various motor function disorders, including cerebral palsy.

At present, the multidisciplinary team (MDT) model is a direction that most hospitals are gradually exploring; however, its practical implementation still faces multiple challenges. For instance, while formulating treatment plans in the MDT model typically requires the participation of experts and physicians from various specialties, there are significant issues in integrating the clinical opinions provided by doctors from different departments after diagnosis and treatment.

Moreover, the treatment of patients with limb disabilities and functional impairments often requires a prolonged course. Surgery and rehabilitation are complementary; therefore, how to integrate perioperative rehabilitation with surgical treatment to achieve optimal clinical outcomes, and how multidisciplinary team (MDT) experts can provide continuous diagnosis and treatment services for each patient, remain challenges encountered in practice.

Furthermore, with the expansion of hospital scale and the continuous growth in patient volume, the efficiency of implementing the MDT model is inevitably affected to some extent.

In response to the aforementioned challenges, Yibo Doctor Group has placed particular emphasis on team collaboration and complementarity since its establishment. The surgical team maintains close cooperation with both the perioperative rehabilitation technology team and the home-based tele-rehabilitation guidance team, jointly refining the closed-loop medical service system for patients with limb disabilities and motor function impairments.

Meanwhile, leveraging years of continuous optimization in clinical workflows and patient management practices, Yibo Doctor Group has streamlined and standardized every stage of MDT implementation. This has significantly enhanced the operational efficiency of the MDT model and ensured its scalability for widespread, large-scale adoption in the future.

In the development of specialized physical hospitals, Dr. Sun Chengyan believes that the establishment of brick-and-mortar facilities can obviously better ensure the stable delivery of medical services to the outside world. However, this requires not only heavy asset investment but also accumulated experience in personnel management and operations, which is often a weakness for founders with a medical background.

Therefore, during the initial phase of Yibo Doctor Group’s establishment, building a physical hospital was not prioritized; instead, Yibo Hospital was officially launched in 2021, leveraging several years of operational experience.

Specifically, first, there is the accumulation of expert teams and the industry-academia-research system.

Treatment of conditions related to limb disabilities and functional impairments generally involves multiple disciplines, thereby requiring experts and physicians from various fields. Currently, Yibo Doctor Group has assembled numerous specialists in bone and peripheral nerve surgery, hand surgery, pediatric orthopedics, and spinal and spinal deformity surgery. Additionally, by collaborating with top-tier domestic experts in these relevant fields, the group provides robust and comprehensive technical support for hospitals.

In addition, Yibo has established clinical research collaboration teams with multiple international experts to enhance the hospital’s clinical research capabilities, maintain its technological advantages, and advance the clinical translation of cutting-edge technologies, with the aim of benefiting more patients.

Second, the improvement of training systems and talent pipeline development.

To extend the benefits of its expertise and technical capabilities to a broader patient population, Yibo Doctor Group, since its official establishment in April 2016, has established multi-site practice partnerships with hospitals across various regions. Additionally, it regularly conducts external training programs on the diagnosis and treatment of limb disability and functional impairments, medical nursing, and perioperative rehabilitation. Through continuous, multi-level, and multi-perspective training in professional skills and service philosophy, Yibo has driven the development of interdisciplinary specialists and enhanced multidisciplinary collaboration capabilities. After years of development, Yibo has now established a comprehensive training system for medical, nursing, and rehabilitation professionals, while also forming a robust three-tier talent development structure.

Third, it has a high-quality team for refined operational management.

Since the establishment of Yibo Doctor Group, Dr. Sun Chengyan has been committed to building a management team capable not only of delivering high-quality medical services but also of supporting the group’s development and expansion.

Currently, most members of the Yibo management team possess extensive experience in hospital operations and management, along with years of accumulated expertise in service quality management, process management, and cost control. Shanghai Yibo Hospital opened in May 2021, advocating a “business-first” philosophy. It strictly controlled fixed expenditures such as staffing, reduced the proportion of spending on pharmaceuticals and consumables, and established a “supervision team” for energy conservation, emission reduction, and consumption reduction during its initial phase. As a result, despite opening amid the pandemic, Yibo Hospital achieved monthly profitability from May to December 2021.

Fourth, it boasts a strong patient reputation and a well-established medical brand.

Since its establishment, Yibo Doctor Group has consistently adhered to a patient-centric approach, prioritizing therapeutic efficacy above all else, with a post-operative satisfaction rate of 98% based on patient follow-ups. In terms of service, the group also emphasizes humanistic care by organizing themed holiday events and charitable initiatives such as “Yibo Cares,” thereby strengthening patient support and building trust in its medical services.

Since its establishment, the Yibo customer service team has placed great emphasis on maintaining strong relationships with every patient. Given that children with cerebral palsy often form small rehabilitation communities, word-of-mouth has become an effective channel for spreading positive patient experiences and currently serves as Yibo’s most important source of new patients. This year, while strengthening its customer service team, Yibo has also actively operated online self-media channels—including WeChat Channels, Douyin (TikTok), Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), and Zhihu—by uploading case videos that authentically showcase treatment outcomes, thereby enhancing brand visibility.

Furthermore, Yibo has established a closed-loop medical service system spanning from surgical procedures to institutional rehabilitation and home-based rehabilitation guidance, leveraging professional and high-quality services to build a strong patient reputation and medical brand.

Despite opening during the pandemic and without designated health insurance provider status, Yibo Hospital performed over 300 surgeries within its first six months of operation, while also managing a significant volume of perioperative rehabilitation patients from 29 provinces across China.

With the establishment and development of the Group’s first physical hospital, Yibo’s strategic development plan for the future has become increasingly clear.

First, the already operational Shanghai Yibo Hospital will be developed into the group’s flagship hospital, and its model will be replicated across multiple cities and regions to establish a premium chain brand in the field of functional neurosurgery in China, thereby extending professional, high-quality services to more patients. It is reported that Yangzhou Yibo Brain Hospital is currently under construction, while Yibo Doctor Group is simultaneously planning the development of rehabilitation centers in several other cities.

Throughout this process, Yibo Physician Group will consistently prioritize the enhancement of clinical technical capabilities and the cultivation of operational management talent as key pillars of its corporate development. Meanwhile, by continuously exporting its clinical expertise and service models externally, the Group not only facilitates the decentralization of high-quality medical resources and technologies to broader communities but also establishes and strengthens its brand image within the industry. Furthermore, Yibo Physician Group seeks to collaborate with capital partners who share its vision, jointly driving the growth of both the Group and the healthcare sector.

For Yibo Doctor Group, the original aspiration remains unchanged: grounded in humanistic medical care, serving patients with excellent technical expertise, proactively assuming social responsibility, passionately engaging in public welfare and charitable endeavors, and contributing to healthcare services for individuals with disabilities. This is destined to be a noble journey. In the future, Yibo Doctor Group will continue to enable more patients to receive superior medical services through standardized processes, professional diagnostic and treatment technologies, and compassionate humanistic care.