Baidu Lingyi Zhihui Files IPO Prospectus Amid Leadership in China's AI+Healthcare Sector, Per iResearch Report

China’s “AI + Healthcare” sector is entering a phase of rapid growth, with Baidu Lingyi Zhihui, boasting leading AI capabilities, already at the forefront of the industry in terms of comprehensive strength. On January 11, 2021, iResearch released the “2020 China AI + Healthcare Industry Research Report,” which highlighted three core advantages of Baidu Lingyi Zhihui: ranking first in general AI capabilities; providing more comprehensive coverage of scenarios in core medical fields; and possessing robust AI + healthcare strengths, such as the development of a professional medical knowledge graph and advanced healthcare data governance capabilities.

iResearch believes that as the nation, all sectors of society, and individual residents place increasing emphasis on health and hygiene, the advantages of “AI + Healthcare” are becoming more pronounced, with the state further introducing policies to encourage its development. In the future, AI will not only assist hospitals and pharmaceutical companies in management and R&D but also help primary healthcare institutions improve their medical services, thereby meeting residents’ growing healthcare demands. Furthermore, “AI + Healthcare” can help alleviate the uneven distribution of medical resources to some extent by providing standardized products to primary healthcare institutions.

For AI-plus-healthcare companies, iResearch believes that comprehensive technical capabilities are primarily reflected in the breadth of coverage across healthcare scenarios and the depth of research into vertical and specialized medical fields. The long-term development of such companies requires robust AI capabilities as a foundation. Therefore, companies that possess both the ability to engage in deep collaboration within the healthcare sector and strong AI R&D capabilities will have greater growth potential.

Baidu Lingyi Zhihui is the AI healthcare brand under Baidu Intelligent Cloud. According to reports from IDC, a globally renowned consulting firm, Baidu Intelligent Cloud has ranked first in China’s AI Cloud market for three consecutive times. Notably, Baidu Intelligent Cloud holds the largest market share in fields such as human body recognition, image and video analysis, and NLP (Natural Language Processing), while also boasting the highest industry-wide user awareness. This provides robust AI capability support for Baidu Lingyi Zhihui.

In the healthcare sector, report analysis indicates that Baidu Lingyi Zhihui, leveraging its core algorithms and technologies, has launched a comprehensive AI healthcare solution that integrates the entire workflow of screening, diagnosis, and management, covering all scenarios both within and outside hospitals.

1) Smart Screening Solutions: Taking fundus diseases as an example, Lingyi Zhihui has developed a highly robust and accurate fundus image analysis system that covers major eye conditions such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy.

2) Intelligent Diagnosis and Treatment Solutions, covering products such as clinical decision support, intelligent medical records, smart prescription review, and intelligent patient services. The Clinical Decision Support System spans various diagnostic and treatment scenarios in outpatient, emergency, and inpatient settings, comprehensively enhancing medical safety through multiple auxiliary functions including diagnostic quality control and treatment plan recommendations.

3) Intelligent Chronic Disease Management Solution: Leveraging the Xiaodu Smart Screen, this solution generates personalized management plans for chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. It offers a suite of services including intelligent follow-ups, medication reminders, and video consultations, while significantly enhancing patient experience through convenient interaction modes such as voice and video.

Regarding AI-powered healthcare capabilities, iResearch believes that companies with advantages in medical knowledge graph technology will secure greater and broader development opportunities in the AI-plus-healthcare sector. Leveraging Baidu’s leading AI technologies—including medical knowledge graphs, natural language processing, and cognitive computing—Baidu Lingyi Zhihui launched the “Ai Zhuyi” solution in September 2020. This solution strongly empowers primary healthcare by providing four core applications: medical knowledge services, clinical decision support, intelligent follow-up services, and regional health dashboards. Its service coverage extends across various scenarios both within and outside hospitals, leaving behind a “permanent AI medical team” for primary care institutions and helping them effectively fulfill their foundational role in the healthcare system. Additionally, Baidu Lingyi Zhihui participates in the National Health Commission’s exploration of integrated prevention and treatment models for diabetes at the primary care level, contributing to improved standardization of diabetes diagnosis and treatment in grassroots medical settings.

In addition to continuously enriching its product portfolio and achieving comprehensive coverage across all healthcare scenarios, Lingyi Zhihui has extensively collaborated with professional medical partners. Guided by the principles of intelligence, integration, and sharing, the company is jointly building a new AI-driven healthcare ecosystem. Currently, Lingyi Zhihui’s products have been deployed in more than 300 hospitals and over 1,500 primary healthcare institutions across 27 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in China, serving tens of thousands of physicians and benefiting millions of patients.

iResearch predicts that AI-powered medical knowledge graphs and AI-driven medical algorithms will continue to achieve breakthroughs, enabling broader and deeper integration across the entire healthcare process. In 2019, the overall market size for AI-enabled core medical software services reached RMB 2.05 billion, representing a year-on-year growth rate of 93.9%. Driven by favorable policies and the impact of the pandemic, iResearch estimates that the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2020 to 2022 will reach 51.9%, with the market size expected to exceed RMB 7 billion in 2022. This indicates that demand for AI in healthcare will continue to expand in the future. Baidu Lingyi Zhihui is poised to seize greater development opportunities, with its market share expected to rise further.