Kangjiu Healthcare: Building a New-Era Elderly Care Ecosystem Through Integrated Medical and Elderly Services

From “Providing for the Elderly” to “Ensuring Secure Care for the Elderly”: In 2011, Geng Haibo founded Kangjiu Medical, centering on the integration of medical and elderly care. Supported by integrated nursing homes and rehabilitation hospitals, anchored in communities, and linked by an IT information platform, the company provides a comprehensive elderly care solution that combines daily living assistance, diagnosis and healthcare, emotional support, emergency rescue, and post-ICU care.

VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) has learned that, to date, Kangjiu Medical operates more than 40 chain medical and elderly care institutions across over a dozen regions in China, serving more than ten million elderly individuals.

Kangjiu Medical leverages a public-welfare-oriented national health and elderly care network as its entry point, integrating the development of offline medical-nursing service outlets, the establishment of a medical-nursing platform, the operation of Kangjiu Academy, and strategic investments across the broader health industry chain, with the ultimate goal of building Kangjiu’s integrated medical-nursing ecosystem.

The National Health and Elderly Care Network is a comprehensive platform dedicated to providing health and elderly care services for seniors across China, hosted by the Population Culture Center of the National Health and Family Planning Commission. As the designated authorized operator, Kangjiu has prioritized this public-welfare platform above all else.

Regarding its public-welfare nature, Geng Haibo stated that elderly care is inherently a quasi-public-welfare undertaking (with profits certainly being modest or even very low). Kangjiu aims to leverage this platform—through functions such as an expert think tank, talent training, standards development, and information dissemination—to promote standardized “integrated medical and elderly care” services to nursing homes across China, thereby enhancing service quality. Additionally, the platform seeks to serve industry peers by facilitating resource integration.

In addition, through this platform, Kangjiu also hosts the annual National Health and Elderly Care Summit Forum.

In 2016, Kangjiu embraced the internet by investing in and establishing Hangzhou Medical and Elderly Care Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Medical and Elderly Care Network”). Leveraging its offline service network and resource support, Kangjiu connected with over 2,600 hospitals and 290,000 doctors on the WeDoctor platform. Adopting an “Internet Plus” model, Kangjiu Medical integrated home care, community services, elderly care institutions, medical facilities, and various medical and nursing service providers into a unified cloud-based platform for combined medical and elderly care services.

Home-Based Elderly Care, Kangjiu has launched the “Medical Care & Wellness” product line. By integrating “Medical Care & Wellness” with TVs, computers, or tablets, it directly connects users with physicians to enable remote, face-to-face consultations with specialists. Building on this foundation, the platform also offers health management features: by connecting to nearby medical-grade smart devices, it provides long-term health data monitoring for seniors and delivers personalized health services tailored to individual needs. Additionally, seniors can access entertainment and cultural content to enrich their spiritual lives, as well as engage in online video calls with their children to strengthen family bonds.

Institutional Elderly Care, Kangjiu launched the “Yi Yang Tong” service management system for elderly care institutions. Through this system, basic personal information and physical assessment data of the elderly are integrated, while functionalities such as bed management and service process management are provided for the institutions. In addition, Kangjiu has established a security system within its nursing homes, implemented through electronic geofencing, smart wristbands, and smart bed belts. According to VCBeat, Kangjiu plans to further develop a comprehensive safety protection system, covering areas such as fire safety and food safety.

Community-based Elderly Care, Kangjiu has launched the “Yiyangbao” self-service health monitoring kiosk. Elderly individuals can use this device at any time within their communities to freely measure blood pressure, blood glucose, blood oxygen saturation, heart rate, and other vital signs, with data uploaded in real time to a cloud-based backend. Physicians on the backend can monitor abnormalities in real time; should any issues arise, they can immediately contact the elderly users and access their data to provide further guidance on adopting healthy lifestyles.

Centered on its elderly care institutions, Kangjiu has also established an open Health Academy that integrates internal and external resources as well as online and offline platforms. VCBeat has learned that Kangjiu Health Academy offers a diverse curriculum, comprising both “required courses” and “elective courses.” In terms of course selection, Kangjiu employs the PACE assessment mechanism to evaluate resident seniors and then guides them in choosing relatively suitable courses based on the assessment results.

Regarding the academy, Geng Haibo told VCBeat that Kangjiu Academy adopts a more inclusive and open mindset, bringing together a diverse group of instructors and seniors from both “inside” and “outside” the institution. Notably, Kangjiu implements a “credit system” for seniors to motivate their participation; earned credits can be converted into points, which can further be redeemed for services or daily necessities.

After more than a decade of development, Kangjiu has established over 40 chain medical and elderly care institutions across China, primarily located in Zhejiang, Chengdu (Sichuan), and Shizuishan (Ningxia). Leveraging its mature offline network and online internet tools, Kangjiu Medical jointly established the Kangjiu Saiboer Fund with Zhejiang Saiboer in 2017. The fund focuses on the integrated medical and elderly care industry, invests in the broader health industry chain, and aims to build the Kangjiu ecosystem.

When discussing the operation and management of these institutions or companies, Geng Haibo stated that through years of hands-on experience, Kangjiu has established a standardized management system and expressed its desire to collaborate with more high-quality enterprises.

“Paths are made by walking; initially, we did not set out to integrate medical care with elderly care,” Geng Haibo told VCBeat. “In 2006, we were operating a chain of clinics and noticed that the majority of patients were elderly. We further realized that elderly care and medical services are closely intertwined. Therefore, in 2007, we formally proposed the concept of ‘integration of medical and elderly care’ and began putting it into practice.”

According to Baidu Baike, “integration of medical and elderly care” refers to the combination of medical resources with elderly care resources to maximize the utilization of social resources. In Geng Haibo’s memory, after the pilot program for “integration of medical and elderly care” was launched in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province in 2008 and achieved favorable outcomes, Kangjiu Medical was formally established in 2011, focusing on building a professional domestic network of medical and elderly care services centered on this integrated model.

Regarding future planning, Geng Haibo stated that Kangjiu will continue to focus on service quality, refine its existing projects into premium offerings, and gradually expand its business across various regions. Kangjiu will remain committed to its operational strategy of “healthcare as the foundation, elderly care as the core, and the internet as the enabler.” Through rational resource allocation and innovative service models, the company aims to scale and broaden the service models and management philosophies it has developed in recent years, extending their benefits to every senior citizen and truly achieving the goals of compassionate and secure elder care.