Mingyi Zhudao and EDDA Technology Announce Strategic Partnership to Empower Primary Hospitals with AI-Driven Precision Surgery Solutions
From left to right: Wu Yuting, Partner at Fenghe Capital; Wu Jiong, Chairman of Fenghe Capital (Investor in Mingyi Zhudao); Su Shu, Founder & CEO of Mingyi Zhudao; Dr. Qian Jianzhong, Founder & CEO of EDDA Technology; Jiang Min, Partner at SoftBank China Capital; and Dr. Fan Li, Co-founder & Vice President of EDDA Technology.
From 2013 to 2018, the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the China Food and Drug Administration continuously issued policy documents, repeatedly highlighting the trend toward intelligent and cloud-based medical imaging, thereby providing strong policy support for the development of smart healthcare. Against this favorable policy backdrop, the “AI + Healthcare” market in China is becoming increasingly mature, signaling the arrival of the era of AI-driven healthcare in China.
VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) has learned that on September 29, 2018, Mingyi Zhudao entered into a strategic partnership with EDDA Technology, a domestic leader in intelligent medical imaging diagnosis and analysis. The two parties will join forces to leverage artificial intelligence in empowering primary healthcare, signaling stronger technical support and assurance for Mingyi Zhudao’s vision of “making no disease difficult to treat.”
It is worth mentioning that Fenghe Capital and SoftBank China Capital also participated in this event.
EDDA Technology was founded by Dr. Jianzhong Qian, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). The company has been dedicated to artificial intelligence and precision medicine for over a decade, with more than 45,000 clinical cases applied globally and over 250 independent clinical publications. EDDA Technology has twice been honored by the international consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, receiving the “2011 Medical Imaging Technology Innovation Award” and the “2016 Product Leadership Award in Medical Imaging,” in recognition of its contributions to effectively applying artificial intelligence technologies throughout the entire cycle of precise disease diagnosis, treatment, and management.
Currently, Mingyi Zhudao is the internet platform that has most thoroughly integrated the surgical industry chain and signed the largest number of experts practicing at multiple locations. The platform has contracted with over 60% of deputy chief physicians and above from Grade A tertiary hospitals both domestically and internationally, as well as more than 100,000 primary care physicians, and has collaborated on surgical services with over 1,000 primary care hospitals. By the end of the year, the number of primary care hospitals within tightly integrated specialized medical consortia with which Mingyi Zhudao has deep cooperation is expected to reach 100, covering more than ten surgical departments including hepatobiliary surgery, ophthalmology, gynecology, and pain management.
Currently, three major business lines are advancing in tandem: a To-C internet surgical platform that provides patients with appointment services for surgeries performed by domestic and international experts; and a To-B collaborative business focused on tight-knit specialized medical consortiums with primary care hospitals, which effectively channels high-quality medical resources down to extensive city- and county-level primary hospitals, while driving the integration of the surgical industry chain and achieving large-scale profitability.
Meanwhile, the self-operated ambulatory surgery center under the "Renowned Surgeons" brand is set to open at the Shanghai New Hongqiao International Medical Center. Leveraging global resources from prestigious medical institutions and experts—including the China branch of MD Anderson Cancer Center, the China branch of Cleveland Clinic, and Huashan Hospital’s West Campus—the center features one-stop multidisciplinary team (MDT) care. Aimed at delivering high-quality patient experiences, it serves the Yangtze River Delta region, providing a premium healthcare platform for patients in East China with major or complex diseases.
The three major business systems complement each other in terms of target demographics: they channel high-quality specialist resources to grassroots patients and primary care physicians, enabling the goal of “treating serious illnesses within the county,” while the Shanghai Renowned Physicians Consultation Center caters to the personalized healthcare needs of high-end clients. Furthermore, these systems reinforce one another in their business models, achieving comprehensive break-even status and profit growth this year.
Following the establishment of the partnership, EDDA’s independently developed IQQA® Intelligent Cloud Platform will be deployed in Mingyi Zhudao’s affiliated hospitals. Leveraging the IQQA® Precision Surgical Planning Platform, with artificial intelligence and computer vision as its core engines, the collaboration will focus on delivering precise diagnostic and therapeutic services via a digital, networked, and intelligent cloud platform, centered on two key pillars: “serving physicians” and “serving patients.”
In contrast to the extensive, exploratory nature of traditional surgeries—often described as “open the abdomen and assess”—the introduction of this technology enables lead surgeons to comprehensively understand and precisely evaluate patients’ conditions preoperatively, thereby formulating scientific and rational surgical plans. This significantly enhances intraoperative safety and greatly improves surgical efficiency. Senior specialists can leverage the platform to remotely assess patients’ organ and tumor structures in advance, monitor disease progression, and perform surgeries at primary-care hospitals. This approach effectively integrates “services for physicians” with “services for patients.”
EDDA Technology has granted Mingyi Zhudao access to its “Intelligent Cloud Diagnosis and Treatment Platform,” signifying that Mingyi Zhudao’s partner hospitals will comprehensively adopt IQQA® Intelligent Cloud Services. This enables them to benefit from the same internationally leading technical services and clinical applications utilized by numerous top-tier domestic and international hospitals, including the Mayo Clinic in the United States, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, the Chinese PLA General Hospital (301 Hospital), Ruijin Hospital in Shanghai, West China Hospital, and Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai. Both parties will empower primary care hospitals through multiple dimensions, including expert resources and artificial intelligence, making the goal of “keeping 90% of serious diseases within county-level jurisdictions” increasingly attainable.
Previously, when the first internet surgical center under the “Famous Surgeon-Led Surgery” initiative was established at Yan’an University Affiliated Hospital, Professor Li Zhiwei, a collaborating expert of the initiative, successfully applied EDDA Technology’s IQQA® system in Yan’an. Through real-time synchronization among Beijing, Yan’an, and Shanghai, the team completed preoperative surgical planning for patients with favorable outcomes.
Taking Professor Li’s use of IQQA® technology for surgical planning as an example, patients can access high-quality medical resources comparable to those in first-tier cities without leaving their local areas. Recently, EDDA Technology has further introduced the IQQA® Intelligent Cloud Terminal, enabling renowned surgeons to utilize this technical service more rapidly, conveniently, efficiently, and safely. This advancement further paves the way for both parties to scale their businesses and share the benefits of artificial intelligence and internet-based healthcare with a broader community of doctors and patients.
It is reported that the first batch of key collaborative projects under the strategic partnership between Mingyi Zhudao and EDDA includes Qingdao No. 6 People’s Hospital, a key partner hospital of Mingyi Zhudao in hepatobiliary surgery. The introduction of the IQQA® Intelligent Cloud Platform for Precision Surgical Planning will safeguard the treatment of liver disease patients in Qingdao. Notably, this technology has been incorporated into the local medical service pricing system, allowing patients to receive partial reimbursement and thereby alleviating their financial burden.
It is foreseeable that, with the advancement of friendly cooperation between both parties, the uneven distribution of medical resources in China and the difficulties faced by grassroots populations in accessing medical care will be significantly alleviated, allowing cutting-edge medical technological achievements to benefit patients both domestically and internationally.