Meinian Onehealth and Yuwell Medical Deploy AEDs Across 200+ Cities to Capture the 'Golden 4 Minutes'

Cardiac arrest is one of the major health threats severely endangering public lives. According to the "2017 National Survey on Public Awareness of Sudden Cardiac Death" released by the Chinese Medical Association, there are currently over 540,000 cases of sudden cardiac death in China each year, equivalent to approximately 1,500 deaths per day due to this condition.

The scarcity and irrational use of emergency resources are urgent issues that need to be addressed in China’s medical emergency system. To improve cardiac emergency support and save more lives, Meinian Onehealth, a leading enterprise in China’s professional health examination sector, has partnered with Yuwell Medical, a renowned medical device supplier, and First Response, China’s leading organization for emergency training and life-support rescue services at events. Together, they will invest RMB 20 million to deploy automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in over 400 health examination centers across more than 200 cities nationwide. This public welfare initiative will not only serve over 20 million annual health examination clients but also extend its benefits to surrounding communities by enhancing the public’s ability to respond to medical emergencies through emergency response training.

It is understood that the golden window for treatment after cardiac arrest is four minutes. Among rescue devices, automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are relatively portable and easy to operate. With proper training, laypersons can correctly operate them following voice prompts, achieving a success rate significantly higher than that of hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Therefore, the wider the distribution, the greater the number of deployment sites, and the higher public awareness of AEDs, the greater the likelihood of saving the lives of patients suffering from cardiac arrest. However, the current distribution and penetration rate of AEDs in China remain far below those in developed countries.

To address this issue, Meinian Onehealth has leveraged the scale advantage of its nationwide checkup network to bring automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to grassroots communities across China. Guo Meiling, Chairwoman of Meinian Onehealth Healthcare Holdings Co., Ltd., stated, “Meinian Onehealth continues to fulfill its corporate social responsibility and engage in public welfare initiatives by leveraging the medical resources of its professional health examination institutions. To more effectively save the lives of patients suffering from cardiac arrest, in addition to procuring AED devices, medical staff at Meinian Onehealth’s checkup centers will visit surrounding communities, schools, and other public spaces to provide detailed explanations on the functions and proper use of AEDs, while also conducting public welfare first-aid training programs to enhance residents’ emergency response skills.”

Cheng Yun, General Manager of Primedic under the Yuwell Medical Group—a defibrillator manufacturer—stated that the company will help Meinian Health cultivate a team of emergency response instructors capable of conducting independent training, and certify two emergency responders for each medical examination center.

Cheng Yun stated, “Placing Primedic defibrillators at Meinian Onehealth, which boasts the widest coverage and the largest number of outlets in China’s professional health checkup industry, will expand the reach of defibrillator-based emergency response and increase the chances of saving the lives of patients suffering from cardiac arrest.”

To maximize the effectiveness of automated external defibrillators (AEDs), it is essential to raise public awareness of their functions. To this end, First Response, a well-known national peer-assisted emergency response platform in China, will launch a public welfare campaign to promote AEDs as part of this collaboration. Lu Le, Founder and CEO of First Response, stated, “Information on AED availability locations will be integrated into Baidu Maps, WeChat Maps, and Alipay Maps. This will enable members of the public in need to locate and access these devices at any time.”

Since the launch of the public welfare initiative, automated external defibrillators (AEDs) have played a critical role in saving lives. In early July this year, a worker suffered an electric shock at a construction site in Jiangxia District, Wuhan. Upon learning of the incident, the Meinian Health Jiangxia Branch swiftly mobilized its medical team, which arrived at the scene within three minutes. Through electrical defibrillation using an AED and manual cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), the injured worker’s heartbeat was restored, resulting in successful treatment.

In addition to deploying defibrillators, Meinian Onehealth has leveraged its medical resource advantages since its founding over a decade ago. The company has partnered with the China Disabled Persons’ Federation to provide free health check-up services to individuals with disabilities for many years. It launched the “Shouyu Plan,” collaborating with the China Social Welfare Foundation, Xinhua Net, Beijing Normal University, and Zhongyu Group to carry out educational assistance and poverty alleviation activities. Furthermore, it initiated the ten-year “National Blood Sugar Control Moonshot Plan,” which aims to reduce the national disease burden by hundreds of billions of yuan. In partnership with the Ministry of Public Security, the company has also provided targeted assistance to populations in southwestern Guizhou who have fallen into or returned to poverty due to illness.