Yike Network: Backed by Sinopharm and Leveraging Ruiguang Kangtai Resources, Offering an Integrated Blood Pressure Management Solution

According to the "Healthy China Action (2019–2030)" released on July 9, 2019, there are currently 270 million hypertensive patients in China, posing a serious threat to public health. To ensure the successful attainment of the Healthy China objectives, the Steering Committee for the Healthy China Action has issued recommendations on blood pressure monitoring, blood lipid testing, self-health management, dietary habits, and physical exercise.

For patients with hypertension, blood pressure monitoring is of paramount importance. It enables real-time assessment of the patient’s physiological status and facilitates effective health management. In China, the current awareness rate for hypertension stands at nearly 50%, while the control rate remains below 17%. This low control rate is primarily attributed to the limited deployment of monitoring technologies at the grassroots level and the insufficient adoption of innovative hypertension management techniques in primary care settings.

Hypertension is also one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The "Opinions of the State Council on Implementing the Healthy China Action," issued by the State Council in July 2019, explicitly stated that by 2022 and 2030, the mortality rate from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases should be reduced to 209.7 per 100,000 population or lower, and 190.7 per 100,000 population or lower, respectively. To achieve a reduction in the mortality rate of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, it is essential to improve the awareness, treatment, and control rates of hypertension, which is one of the primary causes of these conditions.

With the accelerating pace of population aging and changes in lifestyle, the incidence of hypertension in China is rising rapidly, making blood pressure health management for hypertensive patients an urgent priority. The Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Control Action under the Healthy China Initiative (2019–2030) explicitly states that by 2022 and 2030, the awareness rate of hypertension among residents aged 30 and above shall reach no less than 55% and 65%, respectively; the standardized management rate for hypertensive patients shall be no less than 60% and 70%, respectively; and both the treatment and control rates of hypertension shall continue to improve. At the societal and governmental levels, the system of measuring blood pressure during the initial medical visit for individuals aged 35 and above has been fully implemented, and strategies for the integrated management of hypertension, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia are being advanced.

National emphasis on hypertension has spurred the emergence of a wave of startups focused on blood pressure management. Home blood pressure monitoring is gradually gaining acceptance among consumers; however, there remains substantial room for growth in hypertension monitoring. For instance, while technologies such as the internet, the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and big data are advancing rapidly, the recording, storage, analysis, and interpretation of blood pressure measurement data still remain at a paper-based level.

Therefore, although China has made significant achievements in blood pressure monitoring, continuous efforts are still needed to standardize, digitize, and intelligentize blood pressure measurement, thereby fully leveraging the critical role of blood pressure monitoring in the prevention of hypertension.

Experts have pointed out that hypertension is a global disease, and efforts and investments in the prevention and control of chronic diseases in the public health sector should be strengthened. Among these, the most critical measure is to provide standardized training for community physicians and to implement physician-led programs for the prevention and management of hypertension as a chronic condition. The approach to hypertension prevention and control should be physician-centric, incorporating offline training, online consultations, and cloud-based management to facilitate communication between patients and physicians, thereby improving patient adherence.

Shenzhen YiKe Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “YiKe Network”) aligns with this philosophy and has put it into practice. Its integrated blood pressure management platform serves the general population, providing comprehensive chronic disease management services for hypertension across the entire life cycle, including prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation.

Hu Xiao, Deputy General Manager of YiKe Network, stated, “The Integrated Blood Pressure Management Platform leverages remote data transmission and cloud-based data management technologies to connect patients, community hospitals, hypertension diagnosis and treatment centers, and the cloud management platform in real time, thereby enabling intelligent management, continuous monitoring, standardized treatment, and telemedicine support.”

“The ‘comprehensive’ in ‘Comprehensive Blood Pressure’ is reflected in two aspects: First, our blood pressure monitoring services cover a full range of scenarios, including outpatient screening, 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, inpatient measurements, and home monitoring. Second, we offer a complete lineup of devices, including medical-grade automatic pulse wave blood pressure monitors, ambulatory blood pressure monitors, and household pulse wave blood pressure monitors suitable for remote home blood pressure monitoring.”

Why are we optimistic about the healthcare institution-centric model? Hu Xiao explained, “Many companies attempt to build their own ecosystems independent of hospitals by inviting doctors and manufacturers to join their platforms to attract patients, which presents certain challenges. However, our approach is different. We place healthcare institutions at the center, providing doctors with convenient tools that reduce their workload, making our solution more appealing to them. Since patients place greater trust in their doctors, satisfying physicians with our products and services enables us to attract more customers.”

YiKe Network is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shenzhen Ruiguang Kangtai Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Ruiguang Kangtai”), responsible for mobile healthcare and blood pressure management. YiKe Network integrates its software into Ruiguang Kangtai’s blood pressure monitors to provide value-added services, promote the sales of pulse wave blood pressure monitors, deliver more convenient services to patients, and supply richer data to physicians.

As a blood pressure management service provider, YiKe Network conducts business in four areas.

1. Self-Service Blood Pressure Screening: In response to the “Blood Pressure Measurement at First Diagnosis for Individuals Aged 35 and Above” policy, YiKe Network has developed an integrated solution combining smart tablets with medical-grade automatic blood pressure monitors to enable self-service blood pressure screening. The system performs intelligent analysis and interpretation of blood pressure readings, automatically uploads parsed data along with users’ personal information, and facilitates automatic enrollment with family doctors. By statistically analyzing metrics such as the number of individuals screened, gender distribution, counts across various blood pressure categories, and patient geographic distribution, the system effectively improves the awareness rate among hypertensive patients.

2. 24-Hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Service: YiKe Network provides patients with 24-hour dynamic monitoring services through an integrated “hardware + software” solution. By leveraging remote ambulatory blood pressure monitoring to assess patients’ physical conditions, YiKe Network enables physicians to detect blood pressure abnormalities early, such as orthostatic hypotension and postprandial hypotension. Furthermore, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring helps reduce physicians’ workload, optimize the management of hypertensive patients, decrease medication-related healthcare costs and adverse reactions, and play a preventive role against hypertension and its associated complications.

3. Inpatient Blood Pressure Measurement Service: YiKe Network has developed a combination of handheld PDAs and Bluetooth blood pressure monitors based on clinical needs, improving the efficiency of inpatient blood pressure rounds. It also enables prognosis assessment for hypertension in hospitalized patients, medication guidance after discharge, and intelligent reminders, achieving refined out-of-hospital management services.

4. Home Blood Pressure Monitoring Service: This service is based on internet-enabled remote real-time blood pressure monitoring, which can assist in adjusting treatment plans and aid in the diagnosis and management of resistant hypertension. It transmits patient monitoring data to physicians for evaluation of antihypertensive treatment efficacy, thereby improving patient adherence.

Through its integrated blood pressure management services, YiKe Network helps patients enhance their self-management awareness and improve treatment adherence. The Integrated Blood Pressure Management Platform provides more comprehensive and reliable data, facilitating scientific research. Furthermore, its optimized diagnostic and treatment workflows, along with standardized monitoring processes (including data collection, analysis, recording, and management), improve the efficiency of clinical healthcare professionals in managing hypertensive patients.

YiKe Network, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ruiguang Kangtai, has its software integrated into Ruiguang Kangtai’s hardware.

Hu Xiao introduced: “The blood pressure monitor independently developed by Ruiguang Kangtai adopts the fourth-generation blood pressure measurement technology—the patented Pulse Wave Blood Pressure Measurement Method, invented by Dr. Wu Xiaoguang and his team in 2011. The pulse wave blood pressure measurement method is a non-invasive, precise technique for measuring blood pressure, developed on the basis of the Korotkoff sound method. This method uses blood flow fluctuations (pulse waves) downstream of the cuff bladder to replace Korotkoff sounds, and employs multi-point pulse wave sampling instead of single-point Korotkoff sound detection to determine blood pressure. By transforming the discontinuous events of pulse beats into continuous measurements, it significantly minimizes measurement errors and achieves non-invasive, precise blood pressure monitoring.”

“The non-invasive precision pulse wave sphygmomanometer employs pulse wave detection technology to resolve the long-standing challenge of accurate, non-invasive blood pressure measurement that has persisted for over a century since the invention of the Korotkoff sound-based sphygmomanometer. It fills a gap in the international field of non-invasive precision blood pressure measurement and represents a new generation of sphygmomanometers designed to replace mercury-based devices, offering environmental friendliness, accuracy, and scientific rigor.”

In 2017, Ruiguang Kangtai signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Sinopharm Medical Devices. The two parties will leverage their respective advantages to promote the development of PulseWave’s cloud-based blood pressure health management and related businesses, and will proceed to establish a dual-brand sales platform featuring both Sinopharm Medical Devices and PulseWave. As the largest medical device commercial distribution enterprise under Sinopharm Group in China, Sinopharm Medical Devices boasts an extensive marketing network and resources nationwide. YiKe Network Technology Co., Ltd. has capitalized on this opportunity to achieve rapid growth.

Leveraging its resources, YiKe Network has expanded its operations to dozens of hospitals, including Shunde People’s Hospital of Southern Medical University, Shenzhen Hospital of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the First Affiliated Hospital of Baotou Medical College.

YiKe Network’s integrated blood pressure management platform not only serves users of pulse wave blood pressure monitors but also interfaces with other devices and hospital information systems. This platform enables physicians to monitor patients’ health status anytime and anywhere. By integrating multiple single-disease management systems, it forms a comprehensive chronic disease management platform that standardizes case and data formats, achieving unified management of chronic diseases. Furthermore, it supports scientific research initiatives leveraging big data analytics, thereby significantly reducing labor and equipment costs for physicians and healthcare institutions.