Mayitai Files for IPO: Building a Multi-Site Practice Platform to Empower Anesthesiologists and Address Industry Undervaluation

Every morning at around 7:30 a.m., Xu Wuling arrives at her office. At 8:00 a.m., as surgical procedures begin at the hospital, she enters the operating room to administer anesthesia to patients. As a tertiary-level (Grade A) hospital with a high patient volume, it typically performs multiple surgeries requiring anesthesia each day; during particularly busy periods, this number can exceed ten cases per day. Xu Wuling often spends the entire day in the operating room and frequently does not return home until late at night. Even after working overtime until late into the night, she still arrives at the hospital punctually at 7:30 a.m. the next day—a routine she has maintained consistently for years.

Xu Wuling is an anesthesiologist with over 20 years of medical experience and the founder of Mayitai, China’s first real-time anesthesia medical assistance service platform. She earned her master’s degree from the Third Military Medical University of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, previously served as an attending physician in the Department of Anesthesiology at Beijing Shijitan Hospital, and held the position of Director of the Medical Affairs Department at Junhai Hospital.For over two decades as an anesthesiologist, her daily routine—leaving home early and returning late, taking frequent on-call shifts, and spending the majority of her time in the operating room—is not only her reality but also reflects the typical work conditions of many anesthesiologists across China.

The critical role of anesthesiologists in the healthcare system is self-evident. Throughout the entire perioperative period, from preoperative to postoperative phases, anesthesiologists are responsible for preoperative assessment and management, intraoperative anesthesia and physiological support, as well as postoperative analgesia and monitoring. During surgery, anesthesiologists must continuously monitor vital signs, including blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood loss, and urine output, to provide surgeons with stable and optimal operating conditions, safeguard patient safety, and ensure timely emergence from anesthesia after surgery.

Outside the operating room, anesthesiologists are also required for procedures such as painless gastrointestinal endoscopy, painless CT scans, painless induced abortions, and various other pain-free examinations. In emergency care and intensive care units (ICUs), their critical care and resuscitation skills are utilized to the fullest extent. Indeed, the demand for anesthesiologists spans a wide range of clinical settings, making the Department of Anesthesiology a vital and key department in major hospitals. Cultivating a competent anesthesiologist with comprehensive skills typically requires more than ten years of training.

However, at present, the disproportion between anesthesiologists’ income and their workload, as well as the mismatch between their critical importance and the level of recognition they receive, has become a major bottleneck hindering the sound development of China’s anesthesiology industry.In China, anesthesiologists receive low compensation with limited income sources, and public perception of their role remains highly constrained, with most people believing that their work merely involves administering an injection to put patients to sleep.

How can the income and professional recognition of anesthesiologists be improved? How can greater value be created for anesthesiologists? Xu Wuling, an anesthesiologist with over two decades of clinical experience, frequently contemplates these questions.

To encourage private investment in healthcare, the government has introduced numerous favorable policies, leading to rapid development of the private healthcare sector in recent years. According to a report released by Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, the number of private hospitals in China officially surpassed that of public hospitals in 2015, reaching 14,518. By 2017, the number of private hospitals had grown to 18,759, and in 2018 it reached 20,977, while the number of public hospitals stood at only 12,032.

The rise of private healthcare may be the key to resolving the predicament faced by anesthesiologists. To this end, Xu Wuling left her hospital position in 2017 to found Mayitai, dedicated to building aAn Internet Platform Creating Greater Value for Anesthesiologists, providing anesthesiologists with multi-site practice services, mentorship and teaching services, executive search (headhunting) services, and training services.

The importance of anesthesiologists is closely tied to a hospital’s level and scale. In Grade A tertiary hospitals, where there are many critically ill patients and major surgeries, the critical role of anesthesiologists becomes increasingly prominent. According to Xu Wuling, China has only over 80,000 anesthesiologists, with a talent shortfall reaching as high as 300,000. Moreover, due to the lengthy training period required for anesthesiologists and the fact that large hospitals have rigorous training and professional title promotion systems offering greater career development opportunities, 80–90% of anesthesiologists are concentrated in large public hospitals, while small and medium-sized private medical institutions face an acute shortage of anesthesiologists.

Xu Wuling stated: “Inspired by the Didi platform, I decided to establish an anesthesia medical service platform—Mayitai., dedicated to promoting multi-site practice for anesthesiologists and facilitating their mobility, which can not only increase the income of anesthesiologists but also alleviate, to some extent, the shortage of anesthesiologists in small and medium-sized private medical institutions.

For Xu Wuling, the transition from an anesthesiologist to a corporate manager has been challenging at every step. “The fact that Mayitai has reached its current stage is largely attributable to my continuous acquisition of new knowledge, constant self-improvement, and adaptation to market demands,” said Xu Wuling.

The transition from physician to corporate executive requires a prolonged period of adjustment, which Xu Wuling has been striving to shorten. After launching her venture, she immersed herself in extensive business knowledge, learning about investment and financing while engaging with investors and private medical institutions. Throughout the entrepreneurial journey, Xu has maintained ongoing dialogue with professionals in the anesthesiology field. The strong endorsement of Mayitai’s market positioning by many of these experts has further solidified her conviction.

Mayitai addresses the pain points of anesthesiologists and private medical institutions.Following its establishment, it quickly garnered enthusiastic responses from anesthesiologists at numerous Grade A tertiary hospitals and also attracted significant attention from private medical institutions.Through the Mayitai platform, private medical institutions can quickly locate anesthesiologists, thereby helping to increase their income.

Mayitai has assembled a team of top-tier anesthesiologists in China, building a premium brand for Chinese anesthesiologists. It aims to enhance surgical quality, ensure timely and safe care for every patient, create value for anesthesiologists, and provide secure and effective service guarantees for small and medium-sized medical institutions. Now, Mayitai has been operating for over two years. The company’s two co-founders bring extensive experience in business administration and the internet sector. Through the collaborative efforts of Xu Wuling and her partner, the company has steadily found its footing and entered a phase of rapid growth.

Establishing anesthesiology departments in partnership with private medical institutions is one of Mayitai’s key priorities for the current period and the coming years.Xu Wuling conducted an in-depth investigation into the current state of anesthesiology departments in private medical institutions. She found that private hospitals place very little emphasis on anesthesiology, with most failing to establish dedicated anesthesiology departments. “Many medical disputes arise from anesthesia-related issues. As private medical institutions assume responsibility for treating an increasing number of patients, the demand for anesthesiologists and the development of anesthesiology departments will continue to grow.”

Therefore, helping private medical institutions establish anesthesiology departments became a key focus for Mayi Tai in 2019.The company provides private healthcare institutions with a one-stop solution encompassing anesthesia department establishment, facility renovation, equipment installation, consumables supply, talent acquisition, and subsequent operational support.According to Xu Wuling, the company has provided co-construction services for anesthesia departments to five private medical institutions over the past six months.

How to safely and effectively manage patients’ pain has always been a perennial topic and represents the greatest commitment to aesthetic seekers; however, the shortage of anesthesiologists has become a critical barrier for many medical aesthetic institutions in ensuring patient safety.

Currently, the company is focusing on the medical aesthetics sector. Xu Wuling stated, “The medical aesthetics market is currently quite chaotic, with 90% of medical aesthetics institutions lacking an anesthesiology department. By helping these institutions establish anesthesiology departments and providing medical anesthesia solutions, we enable them to enhance their professional capabilities and reduce the risks associated with surgical anesthesia.”

Under the leadership of Xu Wuling,MaYiTai is no longer just a service platform that brings together top-tier anesthesiologists with advanced professional expertise across China; it has also become a trusted platform capable of effectively helping healthcare institutions establish compliant management service systems.To help medical aesthetic institutions and enterprises with essential needs fundamentally resolve medical-related challenges, Mayitai has, since 2019, primarily operated under business models including department co-construction, department accreditation assistance, department trusteeship, shared laboratory services, emergency medical rescue training, and shared anesthesiologist services.

It is evident that, in order to relatively alleviate the imbalance in the allocation of anesthesia medical resources and standardize clinical anesthesia practices in medical aesthetic institutions, Xu Wuling has been committed to eliminating irregularities in the medical aesthetics industry, developing new operational models, and striving to create a more standardized, safer, and more reassuring market for medical cosmetic surgery, thereby enhancing the risk resilience of medical aesthetic institutions.

Through the efforts of Mayitai, anesthesiologists' incomes have seen a significant increase. How can the issue of their low level of recognition be addressed?

“Mayitai has been training the market side through various channels and methods to highlight the importance of anesthesiologists. We hope that Mayitai can become the voice of anesthesiologists and enhance public awareness of their role.” However, Xu Wuling regretfully stated, “The cost of educating the market is too high, and our efforts have yielded minimal results.”“Elevating the professional status of anesthesiologists cannot be achieved by a single platform or individual; it requires collective efforts across the industry to truly demonstrate the value of anesthesiologists.”

Fortunately, in recent years, the community of anesthesiologists has begun to receive increasing attention. The program “Focus Interview” once featured a special report on anesthesiologists, calling on the public to pay attention to the issues of their long-term fatigue and lack of recognition. Leaders from the Chinese Society of Anesthesiology under the Chinese Medical Association and the Anesthesiologist Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, along with numerous prominent figures in the field, have been advocating for improved quality of anesthesia care and enhanced professional status for anesthesiologists. In 2019, a group of leading Chinese anesthesiologists appeared on television, helping the public better understand and appreciate the importance of anesthesia.

Xu Wuling stated, “Although Mayitai is but a modest force, we will continue to make unremitting efforts through concrete actions to raise the income and professional standing of anesthesiologists.”It is foreseeable that, driven by the joint efforts of companies such as Mayitai and industry leaders, the current predicament faced by anesthesiologists will certainly be alleviated in the future.