Youan Medical Files for IPO: Leveraging a Network of 10,000 Urologists to Power China’s Specialty Internet Hospital Evolution

Sometimes, an “unintentional” move can create enormous commercial value.

This is how Youan Medical came into being.

Back in April 2016, Guo Tao, a urologist at Nanhua Hospital Affiliated to University of South China, gathered a group of like-minded colleagues to establish a WeChat group called the Urologists’ Learning Alliance, with the aim of sharing educational resources and advancing professional skills.

Initially focused on sharing study materials and book reviews, the alliance’s WeChat groups quickly evolved to facilitate joint study of Campbell-Walsh Urology, the “bible” of the urology community. The number of WeChat groups grew exponentially. Group members moved beyond theoretical discussions, with exchanges on surgical techniques and sharing of operative experiences becoming new hot topics within the physician community. This shift further fueled the expansion of the community. By the end of 2016, the physician community maintained by Guo Tao had grown to include nearly 10,000 active urologists. Notably, Dr. Patrick Walsh, the American editor-in-chief of Campbell-Walsh Urology, also shared insights on his platform during his visit to China.

However, online teaching and training face numerous challenges. For instance, surgical training in urology may involve images of genitalia and operative scenes that appear somewhat graphic to the general public, thereby subjecting instruction via third-party platforms to various restrictions. On the other hand, maintaining professional communities consumes substantial personnel time and effort. Addressing platform operational issues has thus become an urgent priority.

Coincidentally, a physician suggested exploring commercial operations to cover operational costs. Guo Tao, who lacked expertise in business management, reached out to Ou Junlin, who possessed extensive experience in the healthcare industry. At that time, it was still a year before Hunan Youan Medical Technology Co., Ltd. would officially launch its urologist exchange platform.

Guo Tao’s decision to reach out to Ou Junlin was not a whim. Like Guo, Ou Junlin completed an undergraduate degree in clinical medicine. However, after graduation, the two pursued markedly different career paths. For a significant period, Ou Junlin worked in healthcare media, including at Pharmaceutical Economic News and Physician Daily. He later joined Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson’s largest subsidiary in China, where he served in the Strategic Marketing Department and was responsible for pharmaceutical commercial distribution. Ou also held a position at Novartis Pharmaceuticals and was assigned to a rotational post in Europe in 2010, where he oversaw E-Marketing (digital marketing). Subsequently, he served as Head of Marketing at a company developing early cancer screening products based on ctDNA methylation.

Ou Junlin, CEO of Youan Medical

In the second half of 2016, Guo Tao and Ou Junlin began exploring how to commercially operate a community of urologists.

In Oujun Lin’s view, although tertiary A hospitals and general hospitals in China have gradually achieved synchronization with global technologies, or even taken the lead in certain areas, the standards of care at other hospitals remain relatively backward, indicating significant room for improvement in the overall level of medical services.

Physicians themselves also have a strong desire to enhance their clinical skills and research capabilities. Previously, due to the frequent occurrence of incidents such as medical disturbances, primary care physicians were often reluctant to perform surgeries, even when the risks were low. However, with the in-depth implementation of tiered diagnosis and treatment, the national policy of “managing serious illnesses within the county,” preferential health insurance reimbursement rates for primary care, and strict controls by healthcare institutions on patient referral rates to higher-level hospitals, primary care physicians are now compelled to proactively improve their surgical skills to retain patients brought in by these policies. On the other hand, doctors at large hospitals also actively strive to improve their medical expertise to achieve better career development.

In scientific research, the academic pathways in surgery differ from those in internal medicine. It is more challenging for surgeons to publish academic articles, and there is a strong demand among physicians for academic platforms that provide access to de-identified clinical data.

“Patients seen in urology,” said Ou Junlin, “are characterized by their vast numbers, with tens of millions affected by conditions such as kidney stones and benign prostatic hyperplasia. Another characteristic is the high rate of disease recurrence, which allows these patients to be categorized as ‘chronic disease patients.’ Relevant data show that the five-year recurrence rate for patients with urinary system stones is approximately 50%; for urologic tumors such as bladder cancer, although the five-year survival rate is high, the recurrence rate reaches as high as 70–80%. From the perspective of patient needs, there has historically been a lack of effective postoperative management platforms.”

Addressing the prevailing issues, Guo Tao and Ou Junlin swiftly focused on establishing a communication platform for urologists, officially launching its commercial operations in 2018.

Currently, Youan Medical employs nearly 30 full-time staff members and more than 100 part-time physicians responsible for content production. In terms of internal division of labor, Guo Tao, the Chief Content Officer (CCO) with two decades of clinical experience in urology, leads the part-time physicians in content creation and output; Song Ming, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) with extensive experience in the IT and medical device industries, oversees platform development and maintenance. Ou Junlin, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), is primarily responsible for business development at Youan Medical.

Starting from building a community for physician training, Youan Medical has gradually established a communication platform for urologists by providing high-quality content through its subscription account and offering service tools via its service account. As the platform continues to expand, Youan Medical is also collaborating with hospital department physicians to provide them with SaaS platform services.

For physicians, Youan Medical provides knowledge packages to facilitate patient communication, informing doctors of preoperative and postoperative precautions. It also offers postoperative management tools to help physicians reduce the cost of managing patients after surgery. Meanwhile, by collecting and processing de-identified post-discharge data, Youan Medical supports physicians in writing scientific research papers. For the patient populations managed by physicians, the company provides clinical communication tools that further reduce communication costs by delivering health education and reminding patients of key precautions.

Youan Medical Data Dashboard

By serving physicians, Youan Medical has aggregated a substantial resource base of urologists. Leveraging its strong physician network, the company is actively expanding its business-to-business (B2B) pharmaceutical and medical device client base, assisting them with academic promotion and related services. In 2020, as demand for digital marketing surged among pharmaceutical and medical device companies, Youan Medical’s B2B revenue experienced significant growth. Currently, the company is actively preparing to obtain an internet hospital license to address future development bottlenecks.

In Ou Junlin’s strategic plan, the future development model of Youan Medical will be the CBD model. At its core is the D-side (doctor) resource base, focusing on empowering physicians, encouraging their online participation, and building a pooled resource of online urologists, thereby further expanding outreach to B-side pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Traditionally, product sales for medical device manufacturers have been handled by distributors, with no complete closed-loop system established for collecting usage feedback data. Youan Medical aims to leverage its proprietary platform to provide medical device manufacturers with real-world usage feedback, helping them improve their equipment.

After obtaining the license for an internet hospital, the establishment of such a facility will help expand its consumer-facing patient services. Unlike current open-ended online healthcare platforms, Youan Medical aims to build strong, familiar doctor-patient relationships on the patient side, thereby providing better service to patients.

As of March, the number of internet hospitals had exceeded 1,100. Building on the initial phase of scale expansion, the next stage will shift toward refined and in-depth development, with highly specialized, vertically focused internet hospitals drawing greater attention. Hunan Youan Medical Technology Co., Ltd.’s planned urology-specific internet hospital aligns with this trend toward specialization in the internet healthcare sector.

Currently, urologists also shoulder the majority of diagnostic and treatment demands in andrology. Within the andrology sector, one can observe internet hospitals that specialize in vertical deep-dives, such as Jianke Fangzhou Internet Hospital and Shiqiang Internet Hospital. How to cope with competition from platforms that also host a large number of urologists? Ou Junlin stated that the current market is sufficiently capacious to accommodate multiple enterprises exploring their own unique development models, including pharmaceutical companies with strong pharmaceutical resources and institutions with advantageous access to leading expert physicians.

Youan Medical’s competitive advantage lies in its ability to gradually earn physicians’ trust through four to five years of operations, during which it has consistently produced high-quality content to maintain physician engagement. As a urologist, Guo Tao, a partner in the team, possesses a deeper understanding of physicians’ needs. Furthermore, a robust backing team supports Youan Medical’s continuous innovation.

For Youan Medical, after obtaining the internet hospital license in the short term, it will continue to deepen its services for physicians and constantly expand the functionalities of its SaaS platform. In the medium to long term, it will further lay out its consumer-facing (C-end) business, such as launching digital therapeutics, provide hardware and equipment for postoperative patient management to enable smart home monitoring, and achieve further expansion among business-facing (B-end) pharmaceutical and medical device enterprises.

Youan Medical is currently raising RMB 30 million in angel-round financing. The funds will be primarily allocated to the development of physician service tools, enhancement of platform functionalities, and content creation. While further advancing operational promotion, the company also plans to gradually develop its proprietary mobile app and launch urine sample testing products.

Addressing the challenges currently facing the industry, Ou Junlin pointed out that it is necessary to provide appropriate patient service tools without increasing the burden on physicians. Further improvements should be made in out-of-hospital services to foster positive online-offline interactions, establish familiar doctor-patient relationships, and achieve effective patient management. Meanwhile, disease management tools should form a complete supply chain to better promote platform development. Given the specific nature of urological diseases, the ultimate goal is to achieve deep integration of online and offline services, thereby continuously driving the healthy development of the industry.