Zhongkang Cloud: Building an Integrated In-Hospital and Out-of-Hospital Healthcare Service Platform

“Three years ago, my father was rushed to the emergency room for a heart attack and was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. It was only after he returned home that I learned he had already been identified as having atrial fibrillation during a health check-up at a community hospital, but it had not been taken seriously…” Having worked in medical informatics for nearly two decades, Qin Ming felt a mix of emotions as his own father ended up hospitalized due to issues with data connectivity.

Although the focus remained on “informatization,” this time Qin Ming set his sights on “out-of-hospital” care. “I aim to build a healthcare service platform that is ‘people-centric’ and ultimately serves ‘people.’” In 2015, Qin Ming founded Zhongkang Cloud. Positioned as a healthcare service platform, Zhongkang Cloud connects hospitals, primary healthcare institutions, residents, and physicians, fostering integration of in-hospital and out-of-hospital information, combining online and offline services, and offering a comprehensive model encompassing prevention, diagnosis and treatment, rehabilitation, and health management.

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that, as of this November, Zhongkang Cloud Services had secured over 40 B-side clients, including more than 30 physical hospitals and over 10 regional medical consortia. These networks encompass more than 200 primary healthcare institutions and over 5,000 village clinics. The platform’s C-side user base has currently surpassed 3 million.

Zhongkang Cloud helps hospitals or medical alliances build out-of-hospital management cloud platforms, facilitating follow-up visits and monitoring for residents outside the hospital setting, thereby providing personalized health management services. When it comes to health management, smart hardware and physician services are indispensable.

Zhongkang Cloud Intelligent Health Management Terminal (One-Key Care) originated from battlefield individual search and rescue technology. It features seven built-in monitoring instruments, all certified by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), enabling comprehensive monitoring of various physiological data. Furthermore, the system automatically identifies and uploads measurement data to the cloud, where all monitoring data are automatically generated into intuitive graphical displays.

From the physician perspective, with support from government authorities and hospitals, Zhongkang Cloud has extended its reach to the grassroots level by integrating regional resources—including village doctors, community physicians, specialists, and experts—to establish composite family doctor teams. Leveraging the Zhongkang Cloud platform, family doctors can efficiently conduct resident follow-ups via smart terminals or mobile apps, thereby facilitating preventive care management and disease screening for residents.

However, to deliver “out-of-hospital” medical health management, integration with “in-hospital” data is also a critical component. Zhongkang Cloud connects to hospital medical information systems and leverages population stratification models and AI-driven health pathways to enable intelligent post-discharge follow-up, health education, and health task reminders. This approach boosts user engagement, thereby enhancing user stickiness and facilitating the conversion between online and offline services.

Thus, Zhongkang Cloud has established a seamless service loop spanning pre-hospital, in-hospital, and post-hospital care:

Prior to hospital visits, Zhongkang Cloud provides family doctor contracting services to facilitate preventive management and disease screening for residents, while also enabling pre-hospital appointment scheduling and intelligent triage.

Within the hospital, Zhongkang Cloud focuses on healthcare assistance services, including remote collaborative diagnosis, referral, appointment scheduling, online payment, report inquiry, and in-hospital health education.

After discharge, Zhongkang Cloud enables services such as intelligent follow-up, appointment reminders for return visits, and online consultation for follow-up care. Additionally, it offers health management service packages for residents to choose from at their convenience.

It is worth noting that the Zhongkang Cloud Intelligent Health Management Terminal (Yijianbao) has evolved to its sixth generation, with Personal, Family, Institutional, and Family Doctor editions now available. Suitable for a wide range of application scenarios, it enables seamless connectivity with the out-of-hospital management cloud platform.

Those involved in “informatization” understand that information security serves as the critical line of defense. Zhongkang Cloud has established an information security protection system certified under both the GJB Quality Management System and the Information Security Management System. It employs robust measures—including high-strength encryption, data desensitization, application authorization, and digital certificates—across all stages of data collection, transmission, storage, and application, thereby ensuring that users’ private information remains confidential and is not disclosed.

In terms of its revenue model, Zhongkang Cloud helps hospitals or district/county Health and Family Planning Bureaus (B2B) build out-of-hospital management cloud platforms, charging SaaS service fees; it then provides personalized value-added health management services to individuals (B2C).

Regarding application scenarios, Qin Ming told VCBeat that the Zhongkang Cloud Outpatient Management Platform includes systems such as family doctor contracting services, medical care services, inter-hospital business collaboration, post-discharge management, and health management, as well as intelligent health management terminals. The platform allows for customized product combinations based on different customer types.

After more than three years of development, Zhongkang Cloud has progressed from initial product R&D and business model validation to the current stage of market expansion. Moving forward, Zhongkang Cloud will further expand its market presence while increasing R&D investment in big data, artificial intelligence, and other areas to enhance product competitiveness. Qin Ming projects that by the end of 2019, the B-side segment will serve over 200 physical hospitals, and the C-side user base will reach tens of millions.