Zuoshou Doctor Completes RMB 100 Million Series B Funding to Advance Proactive Medical AI

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that Beijing Zuoyi Technology Co., Ltd. (“Left Hand Doctor”), a leading domestic developer of AI-powered medical systems, recently announced the completion of its RMB 100 million Series B financing round. The round was led by Qiming Venture Partners, with participation from prominent investors including Haier Capital. CEC CAPITAL served as the exclusive financial advisor to Left Hand Doctor in this transaction.

This round of financing will be used for the R&D and upgrade of Zuoshou Doctor’s AI-powered clinical diagnosis and treatment product pipeline, as well as the expansion of related commercial application scenarios.

Left Hand Doctor was founded in 2015 as an innovative enterprise focused on the application of artificial intelligence technologies in the healthcare sector. By integrating cutting-edge AI technologies—including deep learning, big data processing, semantic understanding, and interactive medical dialogue—with medical science, the company is dedicated to developing “Proactive Medical AI.” Its mission is to leverage technological solutions to expand the supply of high-quality medical resources, thereby alleviating the mismatch between the excessive concentration of premium healthcare services and the widely dispersed needs of patients.

The company’s core product, the AI Doctor Platform, covers more than 6,000 common diseases across 35 major medical specialties. By integrating its underlying engine with diverse application scenarios, it offers a range of solutions including speech-to-text transcription bots, intelligent online consultations, smart post-diagnosis management, intelligent pharmaceutical care management, and AI-powered internet hospitals. To date, the platform has served over 500 industry clients, spanning tertiary hospitals, insurance companies, multinational pharmaceutical firms, internet giants, chain pharmacies, and health management companies.

In terms of underlying technology, Zuoshou Yisheng has achieved a leap from "passive AI" to "active AI." The AI learning model is no longer limited to being driven solely by knowledge graphs, but has been upgraded to a dual-engine drive of "data + knowledge." Zuoshou Yisheng aims for its AI doctor to dynamically learn diagnostic and treatment logic by following experts at top-tier hospitals in real-world clinical settings. Under the "active AI" learning framework, there is no need to label extensive training data; simply digitizing and structuring doctor-patient interactions from real-world scenarios is sufficient to support efficient AI learning.

Beyond the iterative upgrades of algorithms and models, the company’s ability to achieve this technological innovation is also attributed to innovations in data sources. In August 2020, the company launched China’s first consultation room interpretation robot at the CHINC conference, drawing widespread attention within the industry. Leveraging superior hardware capabilities and leading end-to-end speech processing technology, the device intelligently isolates doctor-patient conversations from noisy consultation room environments. Supported by a speech recognition model specifically trained on medical terminology, it accurately comprehends doctor-patient communications and parses them into structured electronic medical records (EMRs). With the assistance of the consultation room interpretation robot, physicians can generate standardized medical records without the need for secondary dictation. These records can be copied or imported into EMR systems via interfaces, saving doctors time on documentation and thereby improving consultation efficiency. Furthermore, while assisting physicians in diagnosis and treatment, the interpretation robot autonomously learns diagnostic and therapeutic expertise from renowned specialists at top-tier hospitals through a federated learning framework. This approach ensures the security and confidentiality of hospital data and embodies the core principle of “Proactive AI” advocated by Zuoshou Doctor.

Figure 1: Consultation Room Interpretation Robot

In terms of scenario-based applications, Zuoshou Yisheng (Left Hand Doctor) has developed an anthropomorphic, full-capability AI physician diagnosis and treatment system designed to serve a wide variety of application scenarios. Leveraging the learning paradigm of “Proactive AI,” the AI physician breaks away from the rigid, formulaic doctor-patient dialogue patterns commonly seen in the past. Instead, it engages in free-flowing communication with patients through flexible and varied anthropomorphic language. Backed by extensive medical knowledge and advanced diagnostic and therapeutic expertise, the system addresses patients’ online and offline healthcare needs across all scenarios and covers the entire process spanning pre-diagnosis, during-diagnosis, and post-diagnosis phases. It can collaborate with leading hospitals via a SaaS model to support smart hospital construction and the operation of hospitals’ proprietary internet hospitals; partner with renowned pharmaceutical companies to facilitate long-term tracking and management of end-point patients, provide real-time data feedback and medical support, and drive drug promotion by integrating with product networks; cooperate with internet giants to enhance online consultation services, thereby improving conversion rates and user activity, optimizing user experience, and strengthening paid-user stickiness; and work with insurance companies, health management firms, and chain pharmacies to deliver long-term health management and chronic disease management for insured individuals, employees, members, and other private-domain traffic pools, thus aiding in the development of comprehensive user benefit systems.

Figure 2: Example of AI-Powered Online Clinical Consultation Support

Zhang Chao, Founder and CEO of Zuoshou Yishengstated: “We extend our gratitude to both new and existing shareholders for their trust and support in Zuoshou Yisheng. The Zuoshou Medical team will remain committed to its mission of ‘building proactive AI to make high-quality healthcare accessible,’ delving deeper into healthcare service scenarios, enhancing physicians’ service efficiency, and improving patients’ medical experience. While continuously providing the industry with an online-offline integrated healthcare service engine covering pre-diagnosis, intra-diagnosis, and post-diagnosis phases, Zuoshou Yisheng collaborates with tertiary Grade A hospitals to deliver post-diagnosis management services to patients through the internet hospital model. This initiative aims to alleviate the pressure on offline medical services at hospitals and facilitate home-based rehabilitation management for patients.”

Gao Jinda, Executive Director at Qiming Venture PartnersQiming Venture Partners stated: “Qiming Venture Partners places great emphasis on the advancements and transformations that technological changes bring to healthcare services. Zuoshou Doctor applies AI technology to the medical field, with its intelligent solutions covering multiple scenarios across the entire process of pre-diagnosis, during diagnosis, and post-diagnosis, significantly improving diagnostic and treatment efficiency as well as patient experience. It has gained recognition from many leading clients, including large hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance providers. We are honored to participate in this round of investment in Zuoshou Doctor, supporting the company in continuing to drive technological innovation, product upgrades, and business development.”

Chen Hanming, Project Director at Haier CapitalIt stated: “Left Hand Doctor holds a leading position in the industry in artificial intelligence technology fields such as medical knowledge graphs, knowledge reasoning, semantic understanding, and intelligent interaction. The company’s proactive AI Doctor service serves numerous top-tier clients, including insurance companies, internet hospitals, and pharmaceutical enterprises, helping to increase the supply of medical resources and improve efficiency across all aspects of healthcare. Under Haier Capital’s full-industry-ecosystem investment model, Left Hand Doctor has been linked with the internet hospitals under ‘Yingkang Yisheng’ (Winning Health) to foster ecosystem co-creation. By introducing Left Hand Doctor’s AI technologies and leveraging core capabilities in technology-driven smart healthcare, big data, and integrated online-offline services, the partnership aims to serve patients and enhance patient experience. As one of the key co-creation partners in Haier Capital’s healthcare sector, Left Hand Doctor will continue to generate strong synergistic effects with Haier Capital’s portfolio companies. We believe that under the leadership of its outstanding team, the company will continuously apply AI technologies to the medical field and make sustained contributions to the cause of human health.”

Wang Bin, Managing Director at CEC Capitalstated, “With further policy support and encouragement from the Chinese government for the development of internet healthcare, the value of internet medical services has been validated. The ‘AI Doctor’ developed by Zuoshou Yisheng (Left Hand Doctor) has initially attained a certain level of medical expertise and diagnostic and treatment capabilities. Driven by the dual engines of technological upgrades and expansion into commercial scenarios, the company’s end-to-end AI doctor diagnostic and therapeutic solutions—covering pre-consultation, during-consultation, and post-consultation phases—are poised to disrupt the current business model of internet healthcare. We are also honored to serve as the exclusive financial advisor for this round of financing and look forward to seeing the company become one of the most representative enterprises in the new generation of internet healthcare.”