Hanwei Intelligent Medical Technologies Files IPO Prospectus: Pioneering Breast Cancer Mass Screening with Integrated 5G, AI, Ultrasound, and Robotic Technologies

“When God closes a door, He also opens a window.” This is a well-known inspirational quote. According to Yang Daowen, co-founder of Hanwei Intelligent Healthcare, the threat breast cancer poses to women worldwide represents a door closed by God for humanity. As reported in the “2018 Global Cancer Statistics,” breast cancer has surpassed lung cancer—the most commonly diagnosed cancer overall—to become the leading cause of both incidence and mortality among women.

“Meanwhile, God has also opened a window—this ‘window’ refers to the screening window for breast cancer. Breast cancer progresses slowly in its early stages, allowing a sufficient screening period of up to ten years. As long as women undergo annual early screening for breast cancer, they can essentially ensure protection against the disease,” explained Mr. Yang. “Early-stage breast cancer is classified as carcinoma in situ, which does not require radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Direct intervention yields a very high success rate, with the five-year survival rate exceeding 95%.”

Yang Daowen, Co-Founder of Hanwei Intelligent Healthcare

In 2009, China launched a nationwide initiative to promote early screening for breast cancer. However, as of now, the annual volume of early breast cancer screening in China remains very limited, covering only an average of over 2,000 women per county each year. This stands in stark contrast to the approximately 400 million women of eligible age in China, all of whom are potential candidates requiring early breast cancer screening.

What factors have hindered the progress of population-based breast cancer screening in China? Yang Daowen responded, “It is due to insufficient resources and equipment at the primary care level. Currently, there are only 160,000 registered ultrasound physicians nationwide. The scarcity of medical personnel has resulted in limited coverage for breast cancer screening. Furthermore, cost constraints associated with ultrasound equipment have further exacerbated the challenges facing population-based breast cancer screening in China.”

Unlike the predominantly fatty breasts found in most women in Europe and America, the dense breast tissue common among Chinese women is more suitable for ultrasound examination. The company’s founder, Sun Xi, possesses in-depth knowledge of ultrasound technology. In 1999, Sun Xi joined General Electric Company (GE) in the United States, where he was first exposed to the field of medical ultrasound. During his tenure, he was primarily responsible for the marketing and sales of medical ultrasound imaging systems. He remained with GE for ten years, advancing from Regional Sales Manager to Product Director for the Southern Region, thereby gaining profound insights into the market, technical characteristics, and applications of medical ultrasound.

Ultrasound technology is widely recognized as suitable for breast cancer screening. In China’s breast cancer screening guidelines, ultrasound examination is listed as one of the primary methods for detecting breast cancer. Hanwei Company has chosen to apply ultrasound technology to the field of breast cancer care, primarily based on the following considerations: First, the incidence of breast cancer in China has been steadily rising, posing the greatest threat to women’s health. Second, breast cancer is highly amenable to intervention in its early stages; early-stage ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) can be effectively treated and controlled. Third, ultrasound-based breast cancer screening offers low costs and minimal side effects.

In 2018, Sun Xi, leveraging his background in the ultrasound industry, led a team of shareholders to establish Shenzhen Hanwei Intelligent Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Hanwei Intelligent Medical”). The company was founded with a clear objective: to leverage artificial intelligence to facilitate large-scale breast cancer screening in China and address the challenges associated with population-based breast cancer screening nationwide. Backing Hanwei Intelligent Medical is a professional medical team comprising ultrasound experts from General Electric (GE), leading breast cancer specialists across China, and core personnel from renowned international healthcare companies such as Pfizer, Siemens, and Mindray.

The founding team of Hanwei Intelligent Healthcare shares a strong consensus on the company’s strategic direction. When the shareholder group was initially being formed, the members were previously unacquainted with one another; however, they all shared a common trait: upon hearing Mr. Sun present the vision for Hanwei Intelligent Healthcare, they unanimously and decisively chose to join. This high level of alignment among shareholders regarding the company’s development trajectory and strategic path has ensured remarkable stability throughout the company’s growth process.

What sets Hanwei Intelligent Medical apart from most technology companies is that it was not founded on the basis of a single new technology; rather, it starts with specific needs, adopts a clinical orientation, and seeks to combine technologies to address those needs.

When it comes to Hanwei Intelligent Healthcare’s integrated technologies, they can only be described as “exquisite.” To achieve intelligent early screening for breast cancer, Hanwei Intelligent Healthcare has established comprehensive coverage ranging from front-end robotic operations to back-end AI-powered analysis. In some areas, specialized joint-venture technology companies have even been established, with their technological products empowering Hanwei Intelligent Healthcare’s Breast Cancer Intelligent Screening Management System.

The first technology is "Multi-Domain Spherical Wave Ultrasound Technology", this technology was developed by a joint venture established between Hanwei Intelligent Medical and a team from Silicon Valley. From the outset, its development was positioned toward AI-driven ultrasound imaging technology. In the future, the primary entity conducting intelligent breast cancer screening for Hanwei Intelligent Medical will no longer be physicians but robots; the acquired ultrasound data is intended for robotic “viewing” to facilitate AI-based recognition and assessment, distinguishing it from conventional ultrasound techniques.

The second core technology is “soft robotics”This robot was developed by the joint laboratory established by Hanwei Intelligent Medical and Southern University of Science and Technology. The tail section of the robot replaces traditional rigid robotic arm control with precise pneumatic control, and the contact interface between the ultrasound probe and the human body is connected via pneumatic components. Even in the event of robotic arm malfunction, movements remain within a controllable range, thereby preventing medical injuries.

“Many people are concerned about the safety of using robots instead of doctors for breast cancer screening. Most robots available on the market are industrial robots, which pose certain safety risks in human-robot collaboration. Hanwei Intelligent Medical Care combines robotic arms with soft robotics to fundamentally address safety concerns in medical services,” added Yang Daowen. “Regarding safety, in addition to our core soft robotics technology, we have implemented five to six related hardware and software design measures to ensure operational safety, thereby completely eliminating safety issues in human-robot collaboration from a technical perspective.”

The third technology is the company's AI algorithm.Hanwei Intelligent Medical has developed targeted algorithms based on multi-domain spherical wave ultrasound technology and soft robotics technology. This algorithm enables the robot to perform simultaneous bilateral breast examinations, making it the world’s first ultrasound robotic system capable of concurrent dual-breast scanning.

When diagnosing breast cancer, physicians typically begin by examining one breast; if a suspicious lesion is detected, they proceed to examine the contralateral breast and compare corresponding regions to determine whether pathological changes are present. With Hanwei Intelligent Medical’s bilateral breast examination system, early-stage lesions can be identified more readily. Furthermore, bilateral breast ultrasound facilitates real-time noise reduction in ultrasound images. Hanwei Intelligent Medical’s algorithm team employs differential algorithms to actively suppress noise and intelligently enhance ultrasound resolution—a capability underpinned by the company’s proprietary core algorithm for breast ultrasound, Alpha-SonoNet.

Patents and Software Copyrights Obtained by Hanwei Intelligent Healthcare

Just as no two leaves in the world are exactly alike, breasts are unique to each individual, with distinct characteristics. Conducting fully differentiated intelligent breast screening for tens of millions of women presents significant challenges. Through extensive exploration, Hanwei Intelligent Medical Care has developed a detailed intelligent classification system for women’s breasts worldwide. By designing specific algorithms tailored to each category, the system achieves differentiated detection.

In addition to designing classification algorithms, Hanwei Intelligent Medical’s intelligent breast cancer screening management system can automatically save breast data acquired through robotic scanning. When women undergo annual breast examinations, the system automatically performs standardized comparisons with prior test data, thereby enhancing detection sensitivity and specificity through intelligent algorithms.

Hanwei Intelligent Healthcare is a data-driven company. Through research collaborations with top-tier tertiary hospitals in China, it has acquired early-stage medical data and accumulated tens of thousands of ultrasound imaging cases. Leveraging this data, the company rapidly iterates its products to enhance the accuracy of intelligent breast cancer screening. Currently, Hanwei’s AIBUS breast ultrasound robot has been upgraded to its ninth generation, enabling comprehensive, full-featured breast ultrasound scanning.

Yang Daowen emphasized, “Our products are designed for community and township health centers, including community health service centers and other primary care settings. Our approach is not to replace doctors, but to assist them in conducting initial breast cancer screenings at the primary care level, before referring patients to physicians for accurate diagnosis.”

Hanwei Intelligent Medical conducted pilot screenings in Changting, Fujian, this May, screening over 1,000 women and identifying three suspected cases. One of these was confirmed as early-stage breast cancer. The patient subsequently underwent minimally invasive surgery at a cost of just over RMB 2,000, effectively resolving the condition.

In terms of its business model, Hanwei Smart Healthcare has divided its strategy into three phases: 1. A rural screening business model (already implemented in the rural areas of Changting, Fujian); 2. An urban screening business model (currently being promoted in Shenzhen, realized through a model where the government purchases insurance and insurers purchase services); 3. A business model for grid-based breast cancer screening medical consortia led by municipal and county-level maternal and child health hospitals, integrated with China Unicom’s 5G technology.

Yang Daowen revealed that Hanwei Intelligent Medical will obtain its registration certificate this September and commence market sales by the end of this year.

Looking ahead, Hanwei Intelligent Healthcare will leverage large-scale breast cancer screening as its data entry point, target the population screening market, expand its focus from women’s breast health to overall women’s health, and ultimately build a comprehensive ecosystem centered on health.