Yosemite Medical Raises Tens of Millions Within Six Months of Launch, Targeting the $2.45 Trillion Global Ambulatory Surgery Center Market
YouShiMeiDi Medical Grand Opening Ceremony
On April 21, according to VCBeat,Located atSpanning approximately 3,000 square meters in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area, U-Smile Medical—the first independent ambulatory surgery center—has operated discreetly for six months since its establishment in Pudong last October. During this period, the institution focused on refining internal processes, enhancing team professionalism, and improving patient experience. It now holds its official opening ceremony to express gratitude to all sectors of the healthcare industry for their attention and support.
U-Smile Medical is a comprehensive healthcare provider offering multi-specialty services, including general practice, internal medicine, surgery, and gynecology, with particular expertise in minimally invasive surgery.The medical facility is equipped with advanced diagnostic devices, including CT scanners, X-ray systems, ultrasound machines, and laboratory equipment, and features Class 100 laminar flow operating rooms that meet high cleanliness standards.
Meanwhile,United Family Healthcare has partnered with mainstream commercial insurance providers to build a professional, convenient, harmonious, and reassuring medical service platform. Its physicians come from around the world and offer services in multiple languages, including English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.
At the opening ceremony, Xu Su, former Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Office of Healthcare Reform Leading Group, stated, “Under the overall framework of the ‘Healthy China 2030’ plan and amidst the broader trend of tiered diagnosis and treatment, the development of day surgery serves as a beneficial supplement and exploration, capable of meeting patients’ diversified needs across various dimensions and levels.”
In his celebratory address, Professor Cai Jiangnan of CEIBS stated that healthcare delivered by physician experts is often grounded in their own medical backgrounds and places greater emphasis on the inherent laws of medical development. A patient-centered model performs better in this context, and when effectively integrated with the strength of investors, such healthcare ventures demonstrate greater vitality and sustainability.
According to VCBeat, although Usmile has been operating discreetly for half a year, it has consistently explored how to localize ambulatory surgery centers.
According to reports, the founder of UsmileSong Keying is not only an outstanding surgeon but also a "straight-A student."Completed two postdoctoral fellowships more than a decade ago at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, USA. Was awarded the title of “Shanghai Rising Star” in 2005.
Seven years ago, he made what seemed at the time to be an unconventional decision: joining a private healthcare institution as a senior surgeon."In the years after returning to China, he traveled to the United States at his own expense each year to study the operational models of various ambulatory surgery centers."
According to Song Keying's investigation, the ambulatory surgery center model in Europe and America is highly mature.It is applicable to many common and frequently occurring diseases, allowing patients to be discharged after rapid surgical treatment. For patients who originally required prolonged hospitalization for surgery, the process can be significantly streamlined:Same-day surgery, followed by a brief 1-2 day observation and recovery period before discharge, complemented by standardized services, ensures a warm and comfortable experience, resulting in high patient satisfaction, safety, and efficiency.
Statistical data show that in the United States, more than 3,500 disease types and 23 million surgical procedures are performed annually in ambulatory surgery centers. Ambulatory surgery already accounts for 80–90% of all elective surgeries in developed countries in Europe and America, and nearly 90% of all surgical procedures can be addressed using minimally invasive techniques.The global ambulatory surgery market will reach $2.45 trillion by 2022.
From market research to evaluation, SongKe Ying observed the scarcity of independent ambulatory surgery centers in China, which inspired him to establish a medical institution dedicated to delivering high-quality independent ambulatory surgical services. Thus, “U-Surgery” Ambulatory Surgery Center was born.
In November 2016, the first independent ambulatory surgery model in China, established by Usmile Medical, was launched in Pudong, Shanghai.Song Keying hopes that Usmile will commit to leveraging its advantage in professional services led by medical professionals, expand its core business of daytime minimally invasive surgeries through collaboration with various medical forces, and provide patients with high-level, convenient medical services.
“This is a professional ambulatory surgery service organization founded by surgeons. Having worked in both public hospitals and high-end private hospitals, I hope to explore a localized development path that aligns with the Chinese market,” said Song Keying.
He introduced,In the United States, approximately 92% of ambulatory surgery centers are founded by surgeons, with patient-centered integrated management of "surgery, nursing, anesthesia, and administration" serving as the core of these facilities.
Therefore, Usmile not only brings together outstanding physicians, but also appoints a nursing director who previously served as the head nurse in the intensive care unit of a large tertiary Grade A hospital; its anesthesia services are led by an anesthesia expert from Japan, while management is headed by a U.S. hospital administration specialist with extensive experience in HCA management.
According to Wen Daxiang, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Day Surgery Management Professional Committee and Vice President of Renji Hospital, advances in anesthesia and minimally invasive techniques have progressively reduced surgical trauma, warranting a corresponding reduction in hospital stays. A normalized home environment not only lowers the risk of cross-infection but also facilitates physical and psychological recovery. The implementation of day surgery represents an alternative surgical care model.
“Carrying out independent ambulatory surgery services requires a smoother overall workflow and stricter surgical management, thus imposing high demands on medical services and process management. To independently conduct ambulatory surgeries, healthcare institutions need more meticulous preoperative assessment protocols, more advanced operating room conditions and equipment, more professional and experienced surgeons and anesthesiologists, more scientific patient care pathways, and a more comprehensive postoperative follow-up system,” said Wen Daxiang.
To this end, the Song Keying Day Surgery Center is equipped with advanced and comprehensive diagnostic facilities, including CT, X-ray, ultrasound, and laboratory services. It features two Class 100 laminar flow operating rooms and one Class 10,000 operating room, adhering to the highest cleanliness standards. Additionally, comfortable day-stay observation rooms are available, with overnight stays permitted when necessary.
According to the "Technical Code for Construction of Hospital Clean Operating Departments" issued by the Ministry of Construction, laminar flow operating rooms are classified into five grades: Class 100, Class 1,000, Class 10,000, Class 100,000, and Class 300,000. The lower the number, the higher the level of cleanliness; Class 100 laminar flow represents the highest standard of cleanliness.
Abroad, Class 100 (ultra-clean) laminar flow operating rooms are capable of supporting a wide range of complex procedures, including valve replacement, cardiac surgery, organ transplantation, artificial joint replacement, and neurosurgery, thereby significantly reducing surgical infection rates.
And Usmile Medical has adopted suchClass 100 laminar flow operating rooms are used to treat common, simple, and frequently occurring diseases, significantly reducing the risk of postoperative infection and thereby ensuring faster and better patient recovery.
According to the introductionTo establish an academic surgical platform that integrates novel medical services with emerging medical technologies, Usmile has forged a close strategic partnership with Medtronic, a world-renowned medical device brand, in areas related to innovative surgical training.
According to Dr. Ma Min, Vice President of Innovation Surgery, Greater China, Medtronic Minimally Invasive Therapies Group, Medtronic, as a globally renowned surgical brand, will actively introduce advanced foreign medical devices in the field of minimally invasive surgery, prioritizing their availability through U.S. Medical (YouShiMeiDi). The company aims to leverage Medtronic Surgical’s high-quality medical products to deliver premium healthcare services to patients.
A Corner of Usmile Medical
In traditional medical perceptions, the mere mention of “surgery” often instills immediate fear. When a family member requires surgical treatment for an illness, it frequently triggers collective anxiety within the family. On one hand, patients and their families harbor fears about the disease itself; on the other hand, they are deeply concerned about the burdens of prolonged hospitalization and the endless hassle of shuttling between various hospital departments.
“Our day surgery program actively promotes the use of minimally invasive techniques to alleviate patients’ fears of both their condition and the surgical procedure itself. By implementing an integrated management model involving physicians, nurses, anesthesiologists, and administrators, we create a ‘patient-centered’ care experience, with nursing serving as the core focus to ensure that surgical patients receive the highest quality of care and support,” said Song Keying.
Wu Junmei, Nursing Director at Usmile Medical Care, introduced that the nursing team at the first independent ambulatory surgery center will provide a care model combining seamless perioperative nursing with compassionate care throughout the entire process, comprehensively improving the medical experience for patients undergoing day surgery. The so-called seamless perioperative nursing refers to, on one hand, nurses providing one-on-one accompaniment during consultations, promptly collecting patients’ basic information and completing various preoperative examinations, mastering patients’ conditions, conducting preoperative education for patients and their families, communicating precautions before surgery, and alleviating patients’ tension and anxiety; on the other hand, nurses collect patient data to provide complete medical records for surgeons and anesthesiologists, facilitating smooth preoperative assessments and enhancing patients’ sense of security and trust in the surgical procedure.
The so-called family-centered care model involves nurses from the day surgery department providing full-process accompaniment during the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative phases. This approach blurs the distinction between the day ward and the operating room, strengthens the nurse-patient relationship, enhances patients’ sense of intimacy and trust toward nurses, and improves the overall medical experience for patients.
Song Keying maintains high standards for both “hardware” (medical equipment) and “software” (medical services). By advancing both software and hardware simultaneously, she strengthens the effectiveness of day surgery.
Plus, currentlyIn China, the proportion of day surgeries in public hospitals is mostly less than 5%.Renji Hospital, affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University and serving as the vice-chair unit of the Day Surgery Alliance and an industry benchmark, has already raised this proportion to 40%. However, there remains significant room for growth compared to mature models abroad.It is worth mentioning that the exploration of independent day-surgery models in China was almost a blank slate in the past.
Xu Su said: "Independent ambulatory surgery is still a nascent concept in China. The implementation of this new healthcare model enables large public tertiary hospitals to focus more on relatively complex procedures, while patients requiring simple Level 1 and 2 surgeries—primarily for common and frequently occurring diseases—gain access to more diversified healthcare options. This development is poised to foster a coordinated and complementary medical service system characterized by vertical integration between these ambulatory centers and public hospitals.”
U-Smile Innovationintegrating the foreign ambulatory surgery center model with China's national conditions,In addition to surgical services, it offers primary care featuring Urgent Care, along with extended personalized health management, and specialized multi-disciplinary outpatient clinics in surgery, ophthalmology, gynecology, sports medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and anesthesiology.To better provide the community with convenient, safe, high-quality, and compassionate medical services. After six months of operation and adjustment, this beneficial initiative has received positive feedback from patients, and the overall operations of Usmile Medical have begun to enter a phase of rapid development.
In January 2017, Usmile Medical announced the successful completion of its Series A financing round, raising tens of millions of RMB. Investors included Legend Capital, Licheng Asset Management, and Zhengqi Investment.
The lead investor in this round was Legend Capital, which has been strategically positioning itself in the healthcare sector for over a decade and established a dedicated investment team focused on health and medical care in 2010. As a leading investment firm in the healthcare industry, Legend Capital has invested in nearly 50 medical projects over the past eight years, with a total investment volume exceeding USD 400 million.
“The Chinese healthcare industry will maintain a double-digit growth rate for the long term, gradually becoming the largest market globally,” said Ouyang Xiangyu, Managing Director at Legend Capital. “Factors such as the opening of the medical services sector to private and foreign investment, the widespread adoption of commercial health insurance, and policy benefits from national initiatives encouraging physicians to practice at multiple institutions will drive the development of China’s medical services sector. Legend Capital has always been optimistic about medical services. Usmile Medical was the first in China to establish an integrated day-case minimally invasive surgery center model based on mature international operational practices, along with its distinctive convenient care services. Their emphasis on the quality of medical services, commitment to ethical and trustworthy care, and the novelty and originality of their business model were the primary reasons that attracted our investment in Usmile Medical.”
Chairman of Licheng Asset ManagementCheng Yiquan"In the view of Dr.,"Invest in the best. Usmile Medical aligns with Chengli Asset’s consistent investment logic within specialized healthcare sectors. Their professional team, thorough project preparation, high-standard operating rooms, and comfortable observation wards all constitute a solid operational foundation.。”
Another investor, Fangzheng Financial, is a member company of Legend Holdings.Li Dehe, Vice President of Zhengqi Finance, said: “Zhengqi Finance’s vision is to provide financing and intellectual support to high-quality startups, becoming a partner for win-win collaboration.”We are highly optimistic about the founding team and future development of Usmile Medical.“An excellent healthcare institution must first possess a distinguished team of physicians, a welcoming clinical environment, a meticulous service philosophy, well-established service protocols, and state-of-the-art medical equipment. We believe that Zhengqi Finance can provide the momentum and support to achieve this, and we look forward to collaborating with Usmile Medical to deliver high-quality healthcare services and create shared value.”
Following the completion of its Series A financing, Usmile Medical has secured over RMB 100 million in capital to fuel its continued growth and expansion. Leveraging its competitive advantage in professional services led by medical professionals, the company will further collaborate with various healthcare stakeholders to expand its core business of daytime minimally invasive surgeries and deliver high-quality, accessible medical care.
Song Keying’s vision is to “gather top medical professionals worldwide and create a beautiful healthcare destination.” He hopes that Youshi Meidi will strive to become a practice platform for outstanding physicians, working together to build a warm and comfortable healthcare environment for patients.