UK-Based XYcare, Founded Just Three Months Ago, Empowers Chengdu’s Wuhou District with Next-Gen Primary Care Solutions

On September 5, 2019, the “China-UK Joint Innovation Exchange Meeting on Primary Healthcare and Summit on Cooperation in the Big Health Industry,” guided by the Chengdu Municipal People’s Government and hosted by the Wuhou District People’s Government of Chengdu, was held in Wuhou.

At the conference, the Wuhou District Fengshu Primary Healthcare Transformation Research Center signed project cooperation agreements with three UK-based companies: Nine Health, London Imaging Network, and XYcare. XYcare will collaborate with Wuhou District inPrimary Care Diabetes Management SolutionsCollaborate on innovation.

Signing Ceremony: Liu Jingwei, Chairman of the Wuhou District Primary Care Transformation Research Center (second from left), and Ian Rubin, Co-founder of XYcare (far right)

(Image provided by the British Consulate-General in Chongqing)

XYcare is a highly unusual company, having been established for just three months. Why did the Wuhou District of Chengdu choose to partner with it? VCBeat obtained the answers through exclusive interviews with XYcare’s two founders, Ian Rubin and Richard More.

The founder has many years of experience in the medical industry.

Participated in the development of the UK National Health Service

XYcare was co-founded by Ian Rubin and Richard More.

Ian Rubin is a pharmacist at the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom, holding degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Medicine, and Bachelor of Science. He graduated with a medical degree in 1980 and became a General Practitioner Principal in 1984. In the mid-1980s, he established a small diabetes clinic.

Ian Rubin (Photo provided by the British Consulate-General in Chongqing)

Later, Ian Rubin left the general practice sector and began taking on research and management roles in healthcare and related fields. He served as Medical Director at Ashfield, a home healthcare services company, where he played a pivotal role in establishing its UK medical call center.

Before founding XYcare, Ian Rubin also co-founded another company, CareIS, serving as its founder and executive director. CareIS focuses on developingElectronic Medical Record System and Clinical Decision Support System for General Practitioners. By partnering with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), CareIS participates in the design and delivery of clinical decision support solutions for referral pathways, end-of-life care, and other key processes, helping primary care physicians improve work efficiency and enhance patient experience.

Richard More, another co-founder of XYcare, graduated with a medical degree in 1985, became a general practitioner in 1995, and earned an MBA in 2005.

Richard More (Photo provided by the British Consulate-General in Chongqing)

Richard More previously served as Director at Avanaula, helping the company provide COPD management and treatment services to the community. Additionally, he was a Managing Partner at Ryalls Park and served as Chairman of Xytek, a software development company, and Fingo, a digital marketing agency.

In 2006, Richard More founded XYtal to assist healthcare institutions in managing organizational transformation (referring to aspects such as service workflows and performance evaluation mechanisms). As a partner of the NHS,XYcare provides for the NHSPrimary Care Transformation Consulting Services have served over 10% of UK primary care institutions, helping physicians improve work efficiency and reduce stress.。

Ian Rubin specializes in clinical decision support systems for healthcare, while Richard More is dedicated to managing organizational transformation in the healthcare sector. As founders of companies in different fields, the two would seemingly have had no intersection. However, they met a few years ago through an introduction by a mutual friend.

Ian Rubin stated, “I have found that for clinical decision support systems to be truly implemented, healthcare organizations must undergo transformation.” In other words, CareIS and XYtal’s businesses are highly complementary. Consequently, the two companies began collaborating on related initiatives in the UK over two years ago.

A UK healthcare organization system is comparable in scale to a Chinese district or county. Through deep collaboration, CareIS and XYtal have successfully assisted five such UK organizations in building their primary care infrastructure.

Established to Foster Innovative Collaboration in Primary Healthcare Between China and the UK

Optimistic about the Primary Healthcare Construction Project in Wuhou District

In May 2019, Mr. Ash Green, Commercial Consul at the British Consulate-General in Chongqing, led a UK digital health delegation to Wuhou District to examine the transformation of its primary healthcare service model and reached a preliminary intent with the Wuhou District People’s Government on cooperation in innovative primary healthcare services.

Ian Rubin and Richard More, co-founders of XYcare, conducted field visits in Wuhou District as members of the UK digital health delegation, accompanied by the British Consulate.Wuhou District is planning to build a next-generation primary healthcare service system, leveraging information technology to deliver high-quality, low-cost primary care services.

Richard More stated, “I believe the next-generation primary healthcare construction project in Wuhou District is highly valuable. Therefore, we have strategically integrated the operations of two companies to establish a new entity, enabling more effective collaboration with Wuhou District.”

Ian Rubin added, “Compared with the more developed regions in eastern China, other international companies have not paid much attention to the southwestern region. This is an advantage for us, as it reduces competition. Furthermore, through this visit, we found that Wuhou District has a solid foundation in primary healthcare and experience in collaborating with the United States to build its primary healthcare system. Wuhou District is very proactive in embracing international innovation, and both physicians and primary healthcare institutions are willing to undertake reforms, which is a crucial factor.”

XYcare is committed to providing an interconnected and shared electronic health record (EHR) management system, promoting systematic referral information technology to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the referral process. Its business scope includes electronic medical records (EMR) for primary care, clinical coding, clinical information integration, clinical decision support tools, and patient-oriented informational services.

At the “China-UK Primary Care Joint Innovation Exchange and Big Health Industry Cooperation Summit,” XYcare signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Wuhou District Fengshu Primary Care Transformation Research Center on innovating diabetes management solutions for primary care.Both parties will leverage diabetes management as an entry point to provide clinical decision support and bidirectional referral services, collaboratively building a next-generation primary healthcare management service system.

Ian Rubin also stated, “The UK has relatively advanced experience in the informatization of electronic health records and clinical information systems. We hope to systematically enhance China’s primary healthcare system, improve the scientific rigor and rationality of government performance metrics for primary healthcare development, and help China build a next-generation primary healthcare service delivery model that is high-quality and low-cost.”

Richard More believes that China’s primary healthcare infrastructure currently lags behind that of the United Kingdom. With the onset of population aging, both countries’ primary healthcare systems face significant challenges. While the UK can only patch up its existing system, China has the opportunity to reconstruct a next-generation primary healthcare system. “Therefore, China is the ideal place to implement the next generation of primary healthcare systems.”

Next, XYcare will position China as a key strategic market and work with its Chinese partners to localize its business and products. In the future, XYcare will consider establishing branches in China.