YiJiaYi: Empowering Healthcare Institutions through Digitalized Chronic Disease Management to Benefit Hundreds of Millions of Patients

For the digital health sector, chronic disease management is both a red ocean and a blue ocean. It is a red ocean because the vast market potential driven by the large patient base with chronic diseases has long been widely recognized; it is a blue ocean because, to date, neither a comprehensive technical service system nor an effective payment system has established a viable business model, with many approaches still undergoing validation.

Recently, VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) conducted an interview with Mr. Zhong Dejun, a fellow entrepreneur in the field of chronic disease management. Through our conversation, we gained insights into how he has led the Yijia Yi team to progressively deepen their engagement in chronic disease management. Mr. Zhong Dejun is the founder of Yijia Yi Cloud Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. He also serves as Deputy Secretary-General of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Alliance for Primary Prevention and Control of Hypertension and the Beijing Hypertension Prevention and Treatment Association; Deputy Secretary-General of the Working Committee of the Active Health Research Institute under the China Association for Geriatric Health Care; and Deputy Director of the Project Office for the “Huatuo Project ‘Healthy Blood Pressure Cloud Plan’” under the Hypertension Branch of the China International Exchange and Promotion Association for Medical and Healthcare.

Mr. Zhong Dejun has nearly two decades of industry experience in healthcare informatization and chronic disease prevention and control. He maintains strong collaborative relationships with renowned medical experts in the field of chronic diseases in China and possesses profound insight into the application of next-generation information technologies in chronic disease management. He and his company have participated in one major national special project on chronic disease prevention and control under the 13th Five-Year Plan, three key provincial and municipal R&D projects, and the development of one industry standard for the National Health Commission.

In 2012, Mr. Zhong Dejun, then Deputy Secretary-General of the Beijing Hypertension Prevention and Control Association, recognized significant opportunities in the field of hypertension management. At the time, several renowned medical experts in his circle were involved in drafting China’s tiered diagnosis and treatment system, conveying positive signals that could be summarized into two key points: first, the application of “Internet+” technologies; and second, county-level and primary healthcare institutions serving as the main battleground for chronic disease prevention and control. Mr. Zhong told VCBeat that since then, he has been closely monitoring developments and trends in chronic disease management.

“Entrepreneurship is a perilous endeavor with slim odds of survival, and it is never an easy decision for anyone. The true catalyst that set me on this entrepreneurial path was the announcement by the United Nations Environment Programme on January 19, 2013, that over 140 countries had jointly reached the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Starting January 1, 2026, China will fully ban the production of mercury-containing thermometers and sphygmomanometers,” said Zhong Dejun. Based on this, electronic sphygmomanometers, as substitutes, will see widespread adoption in the future, laying the foundation for the digitalization and intelligent transformation of blood pressure monitoring and management.

Following extensive expert consultations and market research, Yijia Yi Cloud Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Yijia Yi”) was established in Beijing in 2015. By the end of that year, the pilot version of the Yijia Yi Hypertension Remote Monitoring and Management System had been developed, securing financial support from the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs. The Yijia Yi 1.0 system was launched in 2016, followed by the Yijia Yi 2.0 system in 2018. In 2019, research and development of the Yijia Yi Diabetes Management System commenced, with its official launch in 2020. In 2021, the Yijia Yi 3.0 system—a digital and intelligent big data monitoring and management platform for chronic diseases (hypertension and diabetes)—is poised for release.

Reflecting on his six-year entrepreneurial journey, Mr. Zhong Dejun recounted the details with familiarity, remarking with both emotion and confidence, “Over these six years, we have identified and seized opportunities. In the healthcare industry, haste makes waste; success requires steady, step-by-step progress.”

In the interview, Mr. Zhong Dejun emphasized that entrepreneurship is a journey of continuous self-improvement. We must constantly lead our teams to turn the impossible into the possible and transform founders into versatile leaders. A successful entrepreneur typically has a clear vision of the end goal from the very beginning, with a well-defined “portrait” of the future. The remaining task is to guide the team in overcoming challenges; as long as we persevere, time will deliver the answers we seek.

In 2015, the mobile health sector was at its peak, with as many as a thousand apps dedicated solely to chronic disease management. Born into this “chaotic era,” Yijia Yi broke through the intense competition over six years and is now on the verge of entering a phase of rapid growth. This may indeed be inseparable from their entrepreneurial spirit of “tenaciously holding fast to their goals,” as Mr. Zhong Dejun remarked—a trait that is likely closely linked to his military background.

“We have taken a very arduous and distinctive path. In the early days, when many mobile health apps were intensely focused on acquiring customers by targeting physicians or even concentrating on end-user patients to capture traffic, we devoted ourselves to conducting clinical application research on remote blood pressure management under the framework of the National 13th Five-Year Plan’s Major Special Project on Chronic Disease Prevention and Control. While others were rushing to claim market share, spinning stories, and securing financing, we participated in the formulation of industry standards led by the National Health Commission.” Mr. Zhong Dejun emphasized that it is rare for a startup to be involved in the development of industry standards. It was precisely because we diligently pursued these two initiatives from 2016 to 2018 that Yijiayi has achieved its current core value and product competitiveness.

According to the data from the aforementioned study, hypertensive patients managed by the Yijia Yi system achieved a blood pressure control rate of 72.7%, which was 18.8 percentage points higher than that of the control group, with reductions in systolic/diastolic blood pressure exceeding 17/10 mmHg.

Regarding the rationale behind investing significant effort in validating clinical effectiveness, Zhong Dejun explained: “As a clinical disease management system with healthcare institutions as its core application scenario, if its effectiveness is not clinically validated, hospitals would lose the justification for purchasing it. Healthcare institutions represent the largest setting for managing chronic disease populations. Only by gaining widespread recognition and adoption among healthcare institutions can our management system remain invincible in future competition. Time has proven us right—and fortunate. Currently, our ‘Yijia Yi–Digital Intelligence Chronic Disease (Hypertension and Diabetes) Big Data Monitoring and Management Platform,’ built in collaboration with over one hundred leading hospitals of medical consortia/medical communities, is being used by nearly 1,000 primary healthcare institutions, thousands of physicians, and hundreds of thousands of patients.”

Regarding the construction of the company’s future product system, Zhong Dejun emphasized that as a major technical achievement under the National 13th Five-Year Plan Special Project for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, the Yijia Yi 3.0 system is about to be launched. By providing healthcare institutions with an effective and efficient big data monitoring and management system, and expanding this effort under the leadership of health commissions at all levels, the company focuses on the collaborative management of “three highs” (hypertension, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia) and the simultaneous prevention of multiple diseases, thereby helping provinces, cities, and counties establish a digital and intelligent big data monitoring and management network for chronic diseases. Currently, the four core systems supporting this framework have been fully developed, covering monitoring, early warning, intelligent assessment, and intervention management for hypertension and 14 related disease categories, with their clinical effectiveness undergoing continuous validation.

By integrating a comprehensive range of IoT-enabled health monitoring devices for both in-hospital and out-of-hospital settings, the product ecosystem of the “Yijia Yi – Digital and Intelligent Chronic Disease (Co-management of the ‘Three Highs’) Big Data Monitoring and Management Platform” has become increasingly robust. The effectiveness and replicability of this system platform and management model have been validated by a growing number of healthcare institutions.

Yijia Yi - Big Data Monitoring and Management Platform for Digital-Intelligent Hypertension and Related Diseases

While deepening its engagement in the B2B sector, Yijia Yi had already begun planning product development and exploring business models for the consumer (C2C) market by 2019. In March 2019, the company’s innovatively developed “Yijia Yi – CloudShare Smart Cabinet” was deployed at Gongyi People’s Hospital. Based on patients’ disease control status, department physicians provided recommendations for out-of-hospital management. Patients could independently rent or purchase IoT devices for home-based blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring by swiping cards or scanning QR codes. The collected data were synchronously uploaded to the hospital’s big-data monitoring and management system, greatly facilitating physicians’ timely understanding of patients’ out-of-hospital monitoring and management, thereby establishing a data-linked management model.

Yijia Yi - CloudShare Smart Cabinet; Shared Rental of Blood Pressure and Blood Glucose Monitoring Devices

Currently, the company is collaborating with insurance and pharmaceutical partners based on its “Yijia Yi – CloudShare Smart Cabinet” to design corresponding chronic disease management products. It is also promoting the adoption of these products across a broader range of medical institutions, enabling more consumer-facing patients to conveniently access high-quality chronic disease monitoring and management services.

Discussing future development, Zhong Dejun confidently stated, “The company is highly likely to achieve profitability this year. After six years of dedicated efforts, our product portfolio has expanded from blood pressure management to the integrated management of the ‘three highs’ (hypertension, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia), covering intelligent monitoring, assessment, and intervention management for 14 related disease categories. The clinical effectiveness and replicability of our products have been continuously validated, and the demonstrative and leading role of our pilot markets has become increasingly prominent. Last year, we successfully implemented equity participation across our upstream and downstream partners, strengthening collaborations with suppliers and provincial agency teams. It is fair to say that we have laid a solid foundation in terms of our product portfolio, core competitiveness, commercial promotion, and corporate equity structure.”

Finally, Yijia Yi will allocate dedicated resources to capital operations and officially launch its Series A financing round, aiming to leverage capital drivers to propel the company onto a trajectory of rapid growth.