Aivixinnuo Files IPO Prospectus: Pioneering Integrated Cardio-Psychological Care for Chronic Disease Management

“After being rescued from an acute myocardial infarction, I didn’t know how to proceed with standardized rehabilitation training.” This was the greatest concern of Xu Zhuo, founder of Aiwei Xinnuo, following his treatment for acute myocardial infarction. “After my treatment ended, no physician provided me with corresponding rehabilitation guidance. I consulted various sources on my own: some advised bed rest, while others recommended exercise-based rehabilitation, which left me quite confused.”

Perhaps such confusion is not unique to Xu Zhuo. In China, patients generally are discharged two to three days after undergoing interventional cardiology procedures, and those who receive coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in cardiac surgery are typically discharged within five to six days postoperatively. Major hospitals across China allocate more than 95% of their resources to clinical treatment, yet a comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation system remains largely absent. Professor Hu Dayi, Chairman of the Chinese Society of Cardiology under the Chinese Medical Association, has bluntly stated, “Rehabilitation medicine is a weak link in China’s healthcare system, and cardiac rehabilitation is the weakest link among them.”

The "2018 Essentials of the Chinese Guidelines for Cardiac Rehabilitation and Secondary Prevention in Cardiovascular Diseases" points out that the risk of sudden cardiac death within one year is reduced by 45% among patients with acute myocardial infarction who receive cardiac rehabilitation therapy. A five-year follow-up study of 600,000 elderly hospitalized patients with coronary heart disease in the United States found that the five-year mortality rate was 21%-34% lower in the cardiac rehabilitation group than in the non-cardiac rehabilitation group. It is understood that approximately 90% of developed countries have their own national cardiac rehabilitation guidelines, with some adopting European or American guidelines. In contrast, cardiac rehabilitation coverage remains low in China. About 57% of patients lack insurance support, and there is a severe shortage of cardiac rehabilitation professionals, facilities, and equipment. The referral mechanism is also imperfect, with 10% of medical institutions not even knowing how to establish a cardiac rehabilitation center.

Fortunately, as an acute myocardial infarction patient, Xu Zhuo had access to top-tier medical resources and ultimately underwent a systematic cardiac rehabilitation program at a specialized hospital. He is now able to engage in high-risk activities for post-MI patients, such as diving. Xu Zhuo told VCBeat, “The hospital I visited is already an authority in the field of cardiac rehabilitation, but its cardiac rehabilitation outpatient clinic is only open for half a day each week, which fails to meet the needs of the large population requiring cardiac rehabilitation.”

It was this experience that made Xu Zhuo realize the lack of standardized, process-driven services in China’s healthcare market for cardiac rehabilitation and even broader cardiovascular chronic disease rehabilitation. Xu Zhuo holds a Ph.D. in Art Studies and another in Media Interaction. Previously, he primarily focused on providing industry insights and comprehensive industry solutions. As one of the first members of Apple’s Industry Solutions team in China, with education and healthcare as the key vertical sectors under his responsibility, he gained an in-depth understanding of every segment of the healthcare industry. His prior experience instilled in him exceptionally high standards for user experience and service architecture. Now, by founding Aiwei Xinnuo, he aims to bring greater hope for recovery to the vast number of cardiovascular disease patients through superior experiences and care.

The core team members of Aiweixinuo hail from New York University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Tsinghua University, and the Communication University of China, among others. They are seasoned professionals with over a decade of industry experience and serial entrepreneurs, responsible for marketing, operations, branding, risk control, partnerships, and fundraising, respectively. On the medical front, a dedicated Chronic Disease Management Research Institute has been established, bringing together dozens of cardiovascular medicine PhDs, postdoctoral researchers, chief physicians, and associate chief physicians from top-tier (Grade A tertiary) hospitals in Beijing, the Psychosomatic Medicine Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine, and the Mayo Clinic in the United States.

Prior to the company’s official establishment, the founding team spent over a year repeatedly exploring and refining service models and promotional strategies for chronic cardiovascular diseases in both international and domestic markets, so as to determine the company’s future development path.
Ultimately, they chose to draw on the mature cardiac rehabilitation nursing model in the United States, benchmarking against the world-renowned Cooper Clinic, and established Beijing Aiwei Xinuo Health Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Aiwei Xinuo”) in 2019, with the aim of creating China’s equivalent of the Cooper Clinic.

Cooper Clinic was established in an era of severe imbalance in U.S. healthcare resources, with the original mission of helping ordinary people access high-quality medical rehabilitation services. After more than fifty years of development and exploration, Cooper Clinic has ultimately developed a comprehensive standard protocol for post-cardiac surgery rehabilitation. This model has been promoted worldwide and has become an internationally recognized standard process for rehabilitative care.

The Cooper Clinic model initially featured the “Cooper Clinic” as its flagship, from which various rehabilitation institutions were derived, such as comprehensive assessment centers, sleep management centers, nutrition centers, psychotherapy centers, and exercise management centers. These institutions are closely interconnected and indispensable in chronic disease management. The clinic customizes rehabilitation treatment plans with different focuses based on patients’ specific medical conditions.

Currently, the Cooper Clinic has become an internationally renowned chronic disease management brand with a market valuation exceeding billions of dollars. This is also the ultimate brand value that Ivy Cino aims to achieve: becoming a world-leading institution for chronic disease rehabilitation.

While drawing on the Cooper Clinic model, Aivixinuo also implemented localized adaptations. Xu Zhuo told VCBeat that Aivixinuo has primarily made improvements in two areas based on the Cooper Clinic model:

First, based on the physical differences between Chinese and American populations, Aiweixinuo’s rehabilitation solutions are designed around the lifestyle habits of Chinese people;

Secondly, considering the differences in healthcare structures between China and the United States, AiviXeno has also integrated uniquely Chinese elements, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), into its rehabilitation solutions to localize the cardiac rehabilitation process.

How does Aiwei Xinnuo achieve a standardized rehabilitation process? Xu Zhuo responded, “Aiwei Xinnuo’s rehabilitation process primarily consists of four standard stages: First, conduct a professional assessment of patients with chronic diseases to identify individual differentiating factors. Second, develop a targeted rehabilitation treatment plan based on the results of the initial assessment. Third, assist patients in implementing the rehabilitation treatment plan formulated in the second step. Finally, provide systematic management of patients’ personal lifestyles.”

The four standardized rehabilitation steps may appear simple, but each holds its own essence. For instance, during the differentiated assessment of patients, iVeno conducts a comprehensive and meticulous evaluation of their prior medical history, metabolic status, medication response, and lifestyle habits. In addition to assessing medical conditions and organ function, it also performs a proprietary psychological evaluation.

When formulating rehabilitation treatment plans, Aiweixinuo adopts a multidimensional approach encompassing exercise therapy, nutritional therapy, psychological therapy, and physical therapy to develop personalized rehabilitation programs tailored to each patient. In systematically managing patients’ lifestyles, Aiweixinuo employs various methods—including telephone follow-ups, regular outpatient visits, and monitoring via smart devices—to encourage patients to maintain healthy lifestyle habits.

Aiweixinuo currently offers 7 comprehensive assessments, generating 1,650 key evaluation results across 120 indicator groups; 3,700 rehabilitation prescriptions developed based on the expert team’s 23 years of clinical experience; and more than 50 specialized dual-heart treatment protocols. These capabilities enable patients to undergo more precise comprehensive assessments and receive more detailed, personalized rehabilitation therapy.

However, Xu Zhuo also frankly stated, “For patients, self-disciplined management is itself a major challenge. When patients neglect self-management, they tend to develop unhealthy lifestyle habits. Aiweixinuo will attempt to leverage external factors, such as family and community support, to encourage patients to maintain healthy lifestyles. In addition, we are training a cohort of professional ‘clinical exercise therapists’ to assist patients in managing their disease course. In short, the rehabilitation plans formulated by physicians will be implemented with the assistance of clinical exercise therapists, who will provide follow-up care and supervisory management for patients.”

In addition to clinical exercise therapists, Ivisino features a prominent highlight in its standardized rehabilitation process: “Dual-Heart” diagnosis and treatment. “Dual-Heart” refers to cardiovascular health and psychological well-being. Beyond providing rehabilitation and treatment focused on the cardiovascular system itself, Ivisino also delivers therapeutic interventions from a psychological perspective.

Xu Zhuo told VCBeat, “The cardiovascular patients we encounter do not always present with typical symptoms of cardiovascular disease; instead, they often exhibit somatic disorders. These are frequently symptoms of autonomic dysfunction triggered by psychological factors stimulating the sympathetic nervous system. Apart from certain congenital heart diseases, most cardiac conditions are induced by emotional stress and unhealthy lifestyle habits. Moreover, approximately 80% to 90% of patients experience varying degrees of anxiety and depression postoperatively. However, these patients have not received the psychological care they deserve at tertiary hospitals.”

“Currently, approximately 80% of cardiovascular patients in the market have not received psychotherapy. Some pain caused by sympathetic nervous system dysregulation is misinterpreted as cardiac pain, thereby exacerbating psychological anxiety,” added Xu Zhuo. “Aiweixinuo provides patients with ‘cognitive therapy’ to identify the root psychological causes and administer targeted treatment.”

Aivexin currently has two core projects: one is the Chronic Disease Management Center, and the other is the Chronic Disease Research Institute. The Chronic Disease Management Center will vertically penetrate into physical endpoints such as communities and enterprises to establish rehabilitation centers by providing relevant services; the Chronic Disease Research Institute focuses on the integration of industry and academia, exploring the combined use of intelligent devices related to chronic disease management, and conducting training for "clinical exercise therapists" in chronic disease management.

Currently, Aiwei Xinnuo has partnered with People’s Health Network to establish the first Chronic Disease Management Demonstration Center at the People’s Health Industry Demonstration Base, located in Building 9 of the People’s Daily Press. The center is scheduled to be completed this September. In the future, the company plans to expand its focus from direct-to-consumer (C-end) users to business-to-business (B-end) clients by collaborating with large-scale health and wellness institutions, thereby creating a new B2B2C model.

In addition, the company has launched a new round of financing, aiming to raise RMB 8 million for talent recruitment, equipment procurement, and the training of clinical exercise therapists.