Policy Tailwinds Drive Maternal and Childcare Blue Ocean: Yishan Medical Launches Full-Cycle Home Medical Devices for Pregnancy and Parenting
With the accelerating pace of population aging, rising consumer spending power, and heightened awareness of health and chronic disease management, the penetration rate of home-use medical devices in China has been increasing year by year. Data shows that demand for home-use medical devices surged explosively during the pandemic. As pandemic control becomes normalized, China’s home-use medical device market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20%, with its market size exceeding RMB 380 billion by 2025.
Meanwhile,Home-use medical devices possess the attributes of consumer healthcare, which has also been a hot topic in the investment market over the past two years, characterized by a “market capitalization of hundreds of billions, high growth, significant potential, and immunity to centralized procurement.”
Common home medical devices, such as blood pressure monitors and blood glucose meters, have been developed for many years with mature applications, giving rise to leading home medical device companies like Yuwell Medical and Omron. And inIn the maternal and infant market, home medical devices still account for a relatively small share, leaving considerable room for growth; this segment is one of the most promising niches within the home medical device industry.
Yishan Medical focuses on the promising sector of home-use medical devices for maternal and infant care. The company has developed home-use ovulation/sperm detectors for preconception care, fetal heart rate monitors for pregnancy, and neonatal jaundice meters for postpartum use. Meanwhile, it is expanding its portfolio to include various hardware and software solutions for maternal and infant home healthcare, such as AI-powered prenatal ultrasound software and postpartum recovery devices.
It is reported that the company's first product developed in-houseThe entire registration process for Class II medical devices in China has been completed., about to obtain certification, while the second productOverseas FDA registration is also expected to be completed by the end of the year.. Currently, the company is vigorously expanding its market and establishing commercialization channels,Strategic partnerships have been established with multiple channels, including online internet hospitals, offline in-hospital automated medical device vending machines, multi-provincial distributors, and key opinion leaders (KOLs) on Douyin and Weibo.
Leveraging its in-depth presence in the home medical device sector for maternal and infant care, Yishan Medical has completedThe seed round, led by the National University of Singapore and South Korea’s Sunbo Angel Partners, and the angel round, led by HONGKONG X—founded by Mr. Shen Nanpeng, Professor Li Zexiang, and Professor Chen Guanhua, have recently secured additional investment from a Hong Kong family office. To date, the company has raised over RMB 10 million in capital support, and its Series A financing is currently underway with multiple domestic and international investors.
On May 31, 2021, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee held a meeting to deliberate the Decision on Optimizing Fertility Policies to Promote Long-term Balanced Population Development. The meeting pointed out that, in order to improve China’s population structure, fertility policies would be further optimized by implementing a policy allowing each couple to have three children, along with supporting measures. On July 28, Panzhihua, Sichuan Province, issued the Sixteen Policy Measures on Promoting the Aggregation of Human Resources, becoming the first city in China to provide childbirth subsidies for families with two or three children.
With the announcement of the relaxation of the three-child policy, capital and industry have reignited their enthusiasm for the maternal and infant market.
Furthermore, the “Development Plan for the Medical Equipment Industry (2021–2025)” issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology points out that we should promote the remote, wireless, and customized development of maternal and child health equipment, with a focus on developing wearable devices for prenatal and postnatal care and child healthcare. The “Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035” states that we should formulate long-term population development strategies, optimize fertility policies, enhance the inclusiveness of these policies, improve services for eugenics and healthy childbirth, develop an inclusive childcare service system, reduce the costs of childbirth, childrearing, and education, promote long-term balanced population development, and improve population quality.
The introduction of multiple policies has propelled newborn health and eugenics into a sunrise sector, revealing a blue ocean for home-use maternal and infant medical devices.Home-use medical devices, such as preconception care monitors, fetal heart rate monitors, and neonatal jaundice detectors, are poised to become standard essentials for expectant and new parents in the future.
Li Shihao stated, “However, we found thatChina's maternal and infant home medical device sector has long been in a state of following and imitation, lacking independent brands and innovation.Meanwhile, the application of devices such as fertility monitors, fetal heart rate monitors, and neonatal jaundice detectors in home settings is not yet mature or widespread. There remain significant gaps and unmet needs to be addressed, indicating substantial market potential for consumer-grade hardware and software solutions across pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing.
In 2019, targeting the substantial demand in the maternal and infant home medical device market, Li Shihao founded Yishan Medical.
E3A MedTech originated from the National University of Singapore (NUS). The company’s name is derived from Block E3A, the Biomedical Engineering Building where the founder and team dedicated years of effort. The core team hails from the National University of Singapore, Johns Hopkins University, and City University of Hong Kong. The founder, Li Shihao, is a serial entrepreneur whose research interests span diabetes, protein engineering, microbiology, and microfluidic chip design. He previously co-founded a spectroscopy technology company with his doctoral advisor, leading the design and development of laboratory spectrometers and fluorometers.
Li Shihao stated, “Yishan Medical is dedicated to applying cutting-edge spectroscopic research technologies to the maternal and infant care sector,”Redefining products for the entire pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting lifecycle to build a next-generation consumer brand in the maternal and infant healthcare industry.”
Yishan Medical has established a comprehensive and in-depth presence in the field of maternal and infant home-use medical devices, with products under development includingPOCT Pregnancy Preparation Kit, supporting scientific preconception planning;Sperm Quality Analyzer, easily detect sperm quality in a home setting;Home Neonatal Jaundice Monitor, monitor bilirubin levels in neonatal skin tissue at home, reduce hospital follow-up visits, and alleviate anxiety;Prenatal Ultrasound AI Software, AI-powered image interpretation provides personalized ultrasound reports;Newborn Growth Cloud Software Platform, continuous monitoring and follow-up of neonatal growth curves;Fetal ECG Recorder, providing long-term fetal ECG monitoring for pregnant women;Pregnancy Blood Glucose Monitor, reducing the risks of gestational diabetes.
It is worth noting that all products under Yishan Medical are developed based on spectroscopy technology. Li Shihao stated, “Spectroscopy is the most common technique for quantitative and qualitative analysis and has been applied for many years in detection devices for blood glucose, blood pressure, heart rate, and other parameters. The core team of Yishan Medical has been deeply engaged in the field of spectroscopy for many years,Breakthrough applications of spectroscopy in devices such as prenatal hormone monitors for pregnant women, sperm quality analyzers, and neonatal jaundice meters have successfully enabled home use, miniaturization, convenience, and non-invasive testing, while significantly reducing costs.”
“In product design, Yishan Medical firmly adheres to the philosophy of ‘customer first, with product experience as king,’ closely integrating aesthetic appeal with functional value. At the intersection of the ‘mom economy’ and the ‘beauty economy,’ Yishan will continue to accelerate its product portfolio development, building a next-generation maternal and infant healthcare consumer brand that covers the entire cycle of pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing.”
As a technology-driven enterprise, Yishan Medical places great emphasis on intellectual property protection and the establishment of its brand and competitive moat. It is reported that Yishan has deployed patent pools in multiple fields, with more than 30 patent applications filed, over 10 trademarks protected, and applications submitted for prestigious international design awards, including the Red Dot Design Award and the iF International Design Award.
It is reported that the neonatal jaundice meter developed by Yishan Medical will soon be launched for market sales in Guangdong, Shandong, Hebei, and other provinces. Neonatal jaundice is a common clinical symptom in newborns. If not monitored and treated promptly, severe jaundice can lead to bilirubin encephalopathy, resulting in lifelong disabilities. Therefore, timely, dynamic, non-invasive, and convenient monitoring of neonatal jaundice is crucial. The older generation tends to rely on visual observation and empirical judgment, while the younger generation prefers objective and modern tools and guidance. With the increasing number of parents born in the 1990s and mid-to-late 1990s, along with their rising pursuit of quality of life, the demand for home-use jaundice meters is expected to grow significantly.
Li Shihao introduced that the current market price for neonatal jaundice meters ranges from 10,000 to 50,000 yuan per unit. Through technological innovation, Yishan Medical has significantly reduced the production cost of its neonatal jaundice meter while achieving accuracy comparable to imported products. The company aims to lower the price to under 1,000 yuan, or even less, which will strongly accelerate the adoption of this device in home settings and unlock a new market worth tens of billions of yuan.
Li Shihao believes that, driven by policy dividends, the maternal and infant home medical device sector is in a period of rapid growth. Yishan Medical is actively expanding its commercialization channels.”“We will establish brand-operated flagship stores and leverage channels such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), and Zhihu to comprehensively reach our target audience. This approach will enable customers to conveniently complete preconception, prenatal, and postpartum monitoring and healthcare in the home setting, thereby enhancing customer convenience, conserving medical resources, and facilitating the decentralization of hub hospitals.”
Currently, Yishan Medical has established strategic partnerships with multiple channels, including online and offline distribution platforms, achieving pre-sales revenue in the millions. Meanwhile, Yishan Medical’s pregnancy health management products are poised to obtain U.S. FDA clearance, with plans to simultaneously launch promotion and sales in the North American overseas market in December 2021. The company’s marketing and sales teams are undergoing rapid expansion, and strong market response is expected in the coming year.