Phoebus Medical and Yilian Announce Strategic Partnership to Advance Comprehensive Diabetes Management

Recently, Medlinker, a leading domestic specialized chronic disease management platform, announced a strategic partnership with Shanghai PHOEBUS Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “PHOEBUS Medical” or “PHOEBUS”). The two parties will collaborate in the field of diabetes management, aiming to provide patients with more diversified whole-course diabetes management services.

PHOEBUS has partnered with nearly 800 medical institutions across China, covering 20 provinces and 125 cities, and is currently serving over 400,000 diabetic patients, establishing itself as an industry-leading innovative chronic disease management platform driven by real-world data.

As a unicorn in the internet healthcare industry, Medlinker’s corporate development strategy is also focused on specialized chronic disease management. Over the five years since its establishment, Medlinker has continuously connected the upstream and downstream segments of the medical industry chain, pioneering the construction of a patient-centric ecological closed loop that covers disease screening, physician-patient education, diagnosis and treatment services, pharmaceutical distribution, and patient management services. Wang Shirui, Founder and CEO of Medlinker, believes that PHOEBUS’s capability in serving primary care patients with diabetes will synergize effectively with Medlinker’s industrial chain resources, thereby enabling the provision of more comprehensive medical services to the vast population of diabetes patients.

China has a large diabetic population, with annual expenditures on diabetes management amounting to approximately RMB 350 billion, 80% of which is spent on treating complications. Among the 114 million patients with diabetes in China, the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR, hereinafter referred to as “diabetic retinopathy”) ranges from 24.7% to 37.5%, implying an estimated 27 million patients with diabetic retinopathy in the country.

According to data from the National Health Commission, 87% of patients with diabetes seek medical attention at county-level or lower-tier healthcare institutions, whereas basic diagnostic and therapeutic measures as well as appropriate technologies for diabetic retinopathy are primarily implemented in tertiary healthcare institutions.

For primary healthcare institutions, managing diabetes complications presents greater challenges. First, these institutions have limited medical capabilities, a shortage of physicians, and a lack of fundus examination equipment. Second, patients have low awareness of diabetic retinopathy; when symptoms are noticed, they often seek treatment directly from ophthalmologists. Third, single-point blood glucose measurements do not adequately reflect disease progression, and diabetes management based solely on blood glucose monitoring results in poor patient adherence. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish continuous and comprehensive health records for diabetic patients to enable management from multiple data perspectives.

For diabetic retinopathy screening, the market opportunity lies in the fact that fundus microvascular lesions represent the only window through which systemic microvascular pathology can be directly observed non-invasively. Fundus images provide a more intuitive reflection of the cumulative microvascular damage caused by diabetes, facilitating physicians’ assessment and adjustment of treatment plans.

Currently, PHOEBUS primarily provides primary healthcare institutions with handheld fundus cameras best suited for screening, along with AI-assisted screening systems, whose portability and mobility better meet the needs of grassroots-level care.

Furthermore, to address the shortage of ophthalmologists, PHOEBUS has established a remote screening platform leveraging artificial intelligence for assisted screening. The ophthalmologists on the platform are all from major hospitals, ensuring that fundus images are reviewed and diagnosed within eight hours. This enables timely assessment of patients’ conditions, facilitating referrals or treatment. To date, PHOEBUS has provided services to over 400,000 diabetic patients and established traceable chronic disease records.

Zhu Yinglin, CEO of PHOEBUS, stated, “PHOEBUS has always focused on empowering primary healthcare institutions to deliver whole-course chronic disease management, thereby enhancing disease screening, treatment, and long-term management. Currently, PHOEBUS has achieved sustainable revenue through various channels. Following the collaboration with Medlinker, and leveraging Medlinker’s resources across the upstream and downstream segments of the medical industry chain, PHOEBUS aims to provide patients with more diversified services. By integrating key stages such as ‘screening, monitoring, follow-up consultations, and medication,’ we strive to offer patients more comprehensive whole-course diabetes management services.”

Regarding chronic disease management, Wang Shirui believes that “driven by policies and market forces, the ‘division of responsibilities’ between in-hospital and out-of-hospital settings will become increasingly distinct. Hospitals will primarily address complex and critical cases, while services centered on the prevention, rehabilitation, and management of chronic diseases will be provided outside hospital settings. Chronic disease management holds significant promise for the future. Centered on this core strategy, Medlinker will equip itself with all necessary software and hardware infrastructure. Meanwhile, Medlinker will collaborate with more outstanding partners across the industry chain, such as PHOEBUS, to jointly strengthen and expand chronic disease management, with the ultimate goal of benefiting a broad patient population.”