HuiGu HuiYing: Innovative Multi-Functional Preoperative Planning Solution Achieves 90% Accuracy in Template Measurement

For orthopedic surgeries characterized by the “three highs” (high patient expectations, high surgical risk, and high technical demands), preoperative planning is indispensable. The process of preoperative planning serves as a rehearsal for the surgery; accurate preoperative planning is essential to ensure surgical safety and achieve optimal outcomes.

Yu Gang, CEO of Huigu Huiying, told VCBeat: “Currently, the market size of China’s orthopedics industry has reached RMB 60 billion, but the threshold for preoperative design is relatively high, with a nationwide coverage rate of less than 3%.”

An analysis of existing preoperative clinical design protocols reveals that digital software offers significant advantages in practical applications; however, achieving high quality, cost-effectiveness, and scalability remains a critical challenge for enterprises.

HuiGu HuiYing is a team dedicated to preoperative planning solutions for orthopedic surgery, providing orthopedic surgeons and hospitals with next-generation preoperative design products and a cloud service platform based on digital template matching technology and long-segment X-ray imaging. The team has been incubated at the Peking University Health Science Center Technology Transfer and Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center (hereinafter referred to as "PKU Health Sci-Tech Innovation Center").

The Peking University Medical Science Innovation Center is a technology transfer and innovation entrepreneurship platform established by the Peking University Health Science Center to provide comprehensive services for medical science and technology innovation. Since its establishment, the Center has incubated dozens of high-quality medical startup projects across China and successfully attracted more than ten top-tier medical startups to settle in, continuously empowering these ventures as they embark on new stages of growth.

Just as the film *The Promise* became infamous for being dubbed “a bloody case triggered by a steamed bun,” the formation of the Huigu Huiying project can likewise be described as “an entrepreneurial venture sparked by a single DR machine.”

Yu Gang, who holds a master’s degree in orthopedics and traumatology, previously worked on medical development projects in Shenzhen and founded two companies. Currently, Yu Gang serves as a resident physician and is the CEO of the HuiGu HuiYing team. The idea to establish HuiGu HuiYing was sparked by a malfunctioning dual-panel DR (Digital Radiography) machine.

During a residency training rotation at a hospital department with a member of Yu Gang’s research team, the hospital’s dual-panel DR system unexpectedly malfunctioned. DR (Digital Radiography), or direct digital X-ray imaging systems, is a routine diagnostic procedure for patients and an indispensable component of hospital operations.

Most dual-panel DR systems are expensive to purchase and costly to maintain. Given that the research team included many members skilled in R&D, they decided to independently address DR system failures. Subsequently, the team developed software compatible with the hospital’s existing conventional DR units to resolve imaging issues, which later became the prototype for Huigu Huiying’s Pinlide product.

As Yu Gang gained deeper insights into the industry, he realized that the quality of preoperative orthopedic design determines both surgical outcomes and postoperative recovery. Consequently, he decided to delve deeply into preoperative design products and launched the “Hui Gu Hui Ying” project to develop a comprehensive solution for preoperative orthopedic planning.

Currently, the HuiGu HuiYing team has gathered outstanding talents from various fields, including software, management, clinical practice, and finance. The team’s mentors and technical experts are leading figures in their respective domains; notably, Professor Yang Fengyun and Professor Tu Hong both possess many years of clinical experience in orthopedics. Serving as industry advisors for HuiGu HuiYing are Professor Xu Hui, a prominent orthopedic expert in China, and Director Liu Jian, both affiliated with the Fourth Clinical Medical College of Peking University Health Science Center.

To address the preoperative design challenges faced by primary care hospitals, HuiGu HuiYing, guided by the philosophy of “preoperative design for precision medicine,” offers orthopedic surgeons a multifunctional preoperative design service through an integrated solution of software and auxiliary hardware.

When examining patients for orthopedic conditions, physicians typically rely on X-ray imaging to assess the patient’s condition. Digital Radiography (DR) systems capable of full-length radiography not only enable precise measurement of bone length but also offer irreplaceable advantages in evaluating mechanical alignment and anatomical angles. However, for most primary-care hospitals, full-length DR systems are generally prohibitively expensive, with maintenance costs also needing to be considered. To buy or not to buy—that is the question.

In response, the Huigu Huiying team has developed a DR imaging support frame and Pinlide, a software solution for precise stitching of long-segment X-ray images. Manufactured from high-strength carbon fiber composite materials, the DR imaging support frame does not compromise the quality of the final images. During the imaging process, the patient stands inside the support frame, while the physician uses a standard X-ray machine to acquire segmented radiographs.

After importing the acquired segmented X-ray images into the Pinlide software, seamless stitching can be completed with a single click, and the resulting stitched image is essentially consistent with that obtained from a full-length digital radiography (DR) system.

For surgeons who need to perform osteotomy, it is usually necessary to obtain the preoperative osteotomy amount in advance. The "Jieli De" software developed by Huigu Huiying can achieve the following points:

Measure the anatomical angles of bones;

Calculate the preoperative weight-bearing line (WBL) and plan the target WBL;

Automatically calculate the osteotomy correction angle, wedge height, cutting depth, and change in foot length;

Set the desired WBL, correction angle, notch height, MPTA or LDFA, and provide open or closing, medial or lateral osteotomy;

Simulated results after osteotomy adjustment.

Validated, Jielide is applicable for preoperative simulation in a variety of surgical procedures, including total knee arthroplasty, unicompartmental knee arthroplasty, high tibial osteotomy, and scoliosis correction.

Currently, the availability of preoperative templates varies among manufacturers of surgical prosthetic devices. Moreover, most preoperative planning software is developed by these prosthetic manufacturers and is compatible only with their own branded products, which to some extent affects the success rate of preoperative design.

In response, Huigu Huiying has digitized traditional prosthesis templates to establish an electronic prosthesis template library and developed the prosthesis size prediction software “Huilide.” Leveraging AI learning capabilities, the software automates preoperative design; clinicians simply need to import digital X-rays into the system to achieve automatic matching with prostheses from eight manufacturers, offering a simple and efficient solution.

In addition, Huigu Huiying has also developed a T-shaped shoe for adjusting imaging angles and Yipai Pai, a solution designed to digitize X-ray films for primary care hospitals lacking PACS systems.

Targeting primary-care hospitals, Huigu Huiying has developed a comprehensive suite of bundled customer services and cloud-platform offerings: it provides physicians with proprietary interactive learning modules for surgical training, delivering high engagement and effective learning outcomes; enables physicians to offer remote surgical services to underserved and remote areas; and features a physician-oriented cloud service module that integrates resources among physicians, patients, manufacturers, and service providers.

The company has currently established partnerships with five hospitals, including the Jiangxi Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Beijing Jishuitan Hospital. Beijing Jishuitan Hospital is a leading institution both domestically and internationally, ranking first in Asia for total surgical volume and first globally for orthopedic surgical volume. Meanwhile, the HuiGu HuiYing product has undergone early-stage clinical trials at top-tier orthopedic hospitals in China. Validation results demonstrate that the preoperative template measurement accuracy of the HuiGu HuiYing product reaches 90%.

Regarding the core stitching algorithms and prosthetic parameter prediction technologies of its products, the Huigu Huiying team is also actively filing patent applications. To date, Huigu Huiying has obtained two relevant patents, has three patents pending, and has secured one provincial-level research project.

According to relevant data, a total of 9,551 secondary and tertiary hospitals across China are qualified to perform orthopedic surgeries, among which 6,707 are Grade II Class A hospitals, accounting for the largest proportion. Facing nearly 10,000 hospitals is the reality that, except for some Grade III Class A hospitals, most others basically lack preoperative design capabilities for orthopedic surgeries, or such capabilities need improvement.

Therefore, the Huigu Huiying product is primarily targeted at Grade II hospitals across China that are qualified to perform orthopedic surgeries. In the later stages, it will be promoted in other countries around the world based on prevailing conditions, and relevant international patent applications are currently underway.

Throughout its history, Huigu Huiying has been dedicated to addressing the current challenges in preoperative orthopedic planning, improving surgical efficiency and patient satisfaction. While serving hospitals, physicians, and patients, it aims to enhance patients’ trust in healthcare institutions and providers, alleviate tensions in doctor-patient relationships, and help mitigate regional disparities in medical development.

Regarding future development, Huigu Huiying will continue to refine its product features and portfolio, optimize and expand existing medical resources, and build a more comprehensive team. Currently, Huigu Huiying is advancing its financing plan, seeking to raise RMB 3 million, primarily for the development and enhancement of AI-driven software functionalities and the research and development of hardware products.