Enen Doctor: China's First Intelligent Mental Health Platform Files for IPO
Dr. Enen's Team
On June 26, 2016, the first intelligent mental health service platform, “Enen Doctor,” was officially launched. Dozens of representatives from government agencies, healthcare institutions, insurance companies, and internet enterprises attended the launch ceremony, expressing strong affirmation and high expectations for “Enen Doctor.” “Some industry insiders even said, ‘Please, you must carry out this initiative, and do it well, because it could save many lives.’”
After an extended market research cycle, more than six months of dedicated R&D, and countless rounds of debugging and iteration, “Enen Doctor” is adopting a “slow” pace to build a meticulous and rigorous mental health platform. VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) conducted an exclusive interview with the platform’s founder to gain a detailed understanding of the efforts made to provide professional treatment for mental disorders.
China’s National Mental Health Work Plan (2015–2020) states: “With the rapid economic and social development, the pace of life has accelerated significantly, and psychological stressors have become increasingly prevalent. Consequently, common mental disorders such as anxiety disorders and depression, along with psychological and behavioral problems, have been rising year by year. Public awareness of these common mental disorders and psychological and behavioral issues remains low; social stigma and discrimination are widespread; many individuals avoid seeking medical help due to fear or shame, while few pursue evidence-based clinical care.”
Statistical data show that 260 million people in China are affected by psychological and emotional issues, including 25 million individuals with severe mental disorders and over 65 million patients with mood disorders such as depression. According to an epidemiological study published in The Lancet, a renowned American medical journal, there are approximately 90 million people with depression in China.
Compared to the vast population in need, China faces a significant shortage of medical resources for psychological and psychiatric care: there are only 20,000 psychiatrists and 13,000 licensed psychological counselors nationwide. Due to limited access to care and difficulties in finding suitable specialists, the treatment rate among patients remains below 10%. In the United States, the ratio of psychiatrists to patients is 1:200, whereas in China it is 1:83,000; the ratio of licensed psychological counselors to patients is 1:1,000 in the U.S., compared to 1:250,000 in China. Underlying these figures are the profound challenges faced by mental health patients across China.
An increasing number of patients with mental health conditions are seeking treatment information online, yet they struggle due to the lack of systematic guidance. What many patients need is a professional, authoritative psychological service platform that safeguards their privacy. “Enen Doctor” aims to capture this substantial demand by leveraging its network of professional psychologists to address patients’ needs.
As China’s first intelligent psychological service platform, this initiative was developed with a multi-million-yuan investment by Beijing Zhengxin Yixun Technology Co., Ltd. Its core business focuses on delivering integrated services that promote mental health, prevent mental disorders, diagnose and treat psychological injuries, and facilitate psychological rehabilitation, all underpinned by strict security and confidentiality. Currently, “Enen Doctor” offers a web-based platform, a patient-facing mobile app, and a physician-facing mobile app, aiming to provide user-friendly systems and software for patients, hospitals, and doctors alike, thereby making psychological treatment services more accessible to the public.
“Enen Doctor” proposes a tripartite service model comprising three components: the “Self-Screening and Diagnosis System,” the “Confidential Online Consultation System,” and the “Long-Term VIP Joint Consultation System.”
Self-Screening, Managing Health
Online self-screening is often the first step taken by individuals struggling with psychological and mental health issues as an effort to help themselves. Understanding mental health knowledge, obtaining timely answers when problems arise, and conducting timely self-screening when doubts occur are important aspects of managing one’s own mental health, and they are also the top priority in the scientific prevention of mental disorders.
In helping people manage their mental health independently, “Dr. Enen” provides a wide range of educational content on psychological well-being. This outreach takes two primary forms: first, lectures and instructional videos delivered by domestic and international experts in mental health and psychiatry gathered on the platform; second, an engaging intelligent health assistant robot that helps users achieve self-diagnosis and treatment through self-tracking and self-care. Additionally, the platform offers practical self-assessment scales for users to screen for potential psychological issues. Currently, all these self-assessment tools are available free of charge and can be shared.
Privacy Protection, Humanized Video Consultation
Mental and psychiatric disorders are often regarded as silent, hidden ailments, accompanied by pervasive stigma. To maximize the protection of clients' privacy, ensure access to the most professional psychiatric and psychological care, and eliminate the burdens of travel, "Enen Doctor" has launched remote video-based mental health counseling services. With the widespread adoption of the internet, nearly 60% of mental health services are projected to be delivered via remote video consultations in the future. As a complement, the platform also offers text-and-image messaging, voice messaging, and telephone counseling to meet diverse communication needs across various settings.
“Intimate Doctor” is a specialized privacy-protected communication channel provided by the platform, enabling one-on-one confidential online consultations between doctors and patients. This channel not only facilitates doctors in efficiently conducting follow-up diagnoses and treatments but also ensures that patients requiring close monitoring receive timely assistance. Patients can obtain online diagnostic, rehabilitation, and medication guidance from doctors without the need for long-distance travel.
Long-term Follow-up, VIP Joint Consultation
Psychological and mental health counseling is characterized by the need for continuous, long-term follow-up consultations. Regular follow-ups and timely guidance are crucial to users' recovery. The "VIP Joint Consultation Center" service represents a major innovation of "Enen Doctor." Once a user joins any expert's VIP Joint Consultation Center, the system automatically generates a follow-up schedule based on the calendar. Guided by this schedule, users can establish a long-term relationship with their physician for ongoing visits and recovery tracking. With the doctor's assistance, users can better manage their daily lives, adhere to medication regimens and adjustments, and receive prompt responses to their inquiries, thereby achieving faster and more effective recovery.
“Dr. Enen” also stated that a distinctive assistant robot named “Bai Xiaoen” is currently under development, with the aim of serving as an aide to both patients and physicians in the future by collecting patient data, providing mental health information to patients, or assisting doctors with workflow management.
“Some overseas companies have already applied artificial intelligence to psychological diagnosis and treatment. For instance, by analyzing linguistic features such as tone, speech rate, and sentence structure, they can initially identify issues with considerable accuracy,” said the head of Enen Doctor. “Although it remains an aspiration for now, we hope that Chinese developers can also train high-performance AI models using extensive psychological and medical data, enabling patients with mental disorders to benefit from these new diagnostic technologies. Enen Doctor also seeks to collaborate with more partners to leverage big data in advancing ‘Bai Xiaoen,’ with the goal of eventually developing it into an intelligent robot capable of providing preliminary clinical assessments.”
The platform’s greatest strengths lie in its professionalism and attention to detail. This is reflected in many aspects of its services: First, it ensures the professional competence of onboarded physicians by taking into account their medical licenses and clinical experience. Second, the team places strong emphasis on system usability, continuously refining the website and mobile app to deliver a clean interface and convenient functionality—achievements built upon the team’s years of technical expertise.
Regarding its revenue model, “Enen Doctor” primarily adopts an integrated approach combining online and offline services, government projects with public welfare initiatives, and leadership by industry experts with participation from industry professionals. The platform targets a broad user base in need of psychological guidance. Currently, the platform is establishing a comprehensive, four-dimensional system for remote consultations and remote teaching to deliver high-quality services to grassroots medical institutions and users. Moving forward, it will focus on big data, intelligent healthcare, and financial services, aiming to achieve mutual growth with more partners.
“Enen Doctor” is committed to continuously improving its versions to provide users with a better experience. At this stage, the focus is on further strengthening online and offline promotion and partnerships, enabling more people in need to benefit from the platform and facilitating broader dissemination of knowledge about mental and psychiatric disorders.