Zhabei Pediatrics Files IPO Prospectus to Build Premium Pediatric Clinic Chain Integrating Online and Offline Services

Zhao Qiang, CEO of Zhibei Pediatrics

Since its inception, Zhibei Pediatrics has gained widespread acclaim.

On one hand, the founder, Dr. Ou Qian, is a public figure. She was formerly a pediatrician and mother at the Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center. With over 500,000 followers on Sina Weibo, she is a highly popular parenting blogger on the platform and has consistently published in-depth, evidence-based science communication articles on her WeChat Official Account, earning widespread reader acclaim. Meanwhile, as a star physician, she also provides pediatric consultations to patients on “light consultation” platforms such as Chunyu Doctor and Haodafu.

Dissatisfied with the “three-minute consultation” norm entrenched in the public healthcare system, Dr. Ou Qian left her position within the system and met Zhao Qiang, co-founder of Xiaoyusan Insurance. The two quickly developed mutual appreciation. “Integrating pediatric care with insurance will undoubtedly generate significant synergy. My experience in administration and marketing complements physicians’ typical gaps in business acumen, while Dr. Ou’s professional expertise and healthcare management capabilities precisely fill my own shortcomings.”

Thus, the two hit it off immediately and decided to establish Zhibei Pediatric Clinic. “Within three months, the Zhibei Pediatric team achieved break-even solely through its online operations,” said an enthusiastic Zhao Qiang.

So, how brilliant is the synergy at ZhiBei Pediatric Clinic, which integrates professional physicians with insurance and finance teams? And how do they plan to operate as they expand from a single clinic to a mid-to-high-end chain of clinics? 

Zhibei Pediatric Clinic is located at Aoyuan City World, Zhongcun Street, Panyu District, Guangzhou City, a semi-urban and semi-suburban area that also boastsNumerous residential areas, in close proximity to residentsplace.

Stepping into Zhibei Pediatric Clinic, reporters were greeted by a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Spanning over 400 square meters, the facility features child-friendly designs—from wall murals to floor patterns resembling lawns—creating a clean, bright, and inviting environment.“We decided from the very beginning to build a pediatric clinic with warmth,” Ou Qian told reporters. “Therefore, whether in terms of color schemes or functional design, we have fully considered children’s needs and comfort.”

In the past, patients had poor healthcare experiences. Parents often felt resigned to their fate, and most even understood the difficulties faced by pediatricians; likewise, pediatricians certainly understood the hardships endured by parents. However, parents could never be fully satisfied, and doctors could never achieve perfection. This deadlock persisted for many years, seemingly unbreakable.

“We aim to fulfill the original intent of pure clinical practice and uphold the ideal of dedicated medical care, so that children and their families can gain more than just a prescription or a medical record—a reliable physician for long-term follow-up, a professional friend who knows the child’s personality well, a healthcare environment where children no longer feel fear, and essential scientific knowledge on parenting and childcare that should have been mastered long ago,” said Ou Qian. 

While offline clinics remain the primary focus, online lightweight consultations are also essential. According to Ou Qian, Zhibei Pediatrics adheres to the principles of evidence-based medicine and adopts an integrated online-offline model to provide closed-loop medical services for pediatric patients. The “Zhibei Health” WeChat official account was officially launched in September this year, primarily offering three services: online consultations, the Zhibei Parenting Class, and Zhibei Micro-Courses.

First, in the online consultation process, Ou Qian had previously joined other online consultation platforms. During use, she discovered significant information asymmetry between doctors and users: doctors were unaware of when patients would ask questions, while patients’ fragmented questioning style also impaired communication efficiency with physicians. Therefore, Zhibei Pediatrics retained the platform’s standard question-and-answer format but introduced the role of a “Doctor’s Assistant.”

Doctor’s Assistant is primarily staffed by nurses and trained customer service representatives, serving as a bridge between doctors and patients. It provides real-time updates on physicians’ availability to patients, while organizing consultation data to help doctors collect diagnostically valuable patient information, thereby enhancing the user experience for both patients and physicians.

Secondly, the Zhibei Parenting Class is a paid WeChat classroom group. Lecturers are full-time physicians from Zhibei Pediatrics. The program delivers instruction on scientific parenting mindsets, routine childcare and nursing knowledge, and the identification and management of common pediatric symptoms through a curriculum of 12 sessions (10 compulsory + 2 elective) over three months, with a tuition fee of RMB 999 per person.

Zhao Qiang was quite emotional when discussing the parenting classes. The entire process, from product development to promotion and user feedback, was as thrilling as a roller coaster ride. “Initially, users were unfamiliar with online health management and courses, resulting in low user engagement and conversion rates.” Subsequently, through WeChat community management and Weibo promotions, users gradually became involved and discovered they had gained valuable parenting knowledge. Since then, whenever the parenting class (held once a month) goes live, the number of registrants (Limited to 50 participants) was fully booked. It has now continued to the 7th cohort, with 70 registrants.

Pediatric medical resources are currently extremely scarce. To address this shortage, it is necessary to restructure the supply-and-demand system. Online models shift medical services upstream, thereby alleviating, to some extent, parental anxiety when their children fall ill unexpectedly.

In addition to Dr. Ou Qian’s distinctive expertise in child healthcare, Zhibei Pediatrics also boasts four full-time star physicians: Liu Xin, Wang Jie, Xiao Yan, and Wu Hao. Each specializes in their respective fields, and their presence is expected to drive a certain degree of patient traffic to the clinic during its initial offline establishment phase.

Liu Xin, Specialized Pediatric Clinic at Zhibei Pediatrics, is a dermatology specialist. He formerly served as an attending physician in the Department of Dermatology at Guangzhou Liwan District People’s Hospital and was a recommended consultation expert by Sina Love Doctor. With 15 years of experience in dermatology and pediatrics, he has provided online medical consultations to over 1,000 patients since 2015, maintaining a 100% positive rating.

Wang Jie, a pediatric ENT specialist at Zhibei Pediatrics, formerly served as an Associate Chief Physician in the Department of Otolaryngology at Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center. With 15 years of clinical experience in pediatric otolaryngology, she has attended to nearly 100,000 outpatient visits and performed inpatient surgeries on approximately 5,000 children, accumulating extensive expertise in the management of common and frequently occurring pediatric ENT conditions.

Xiao Yan, a pediatrician at Zhibei Pediatrics and an attending physician in general pediatrics, graduated from Tianjin Medical University with a major in pediatrics in 2000 and has 15 years of clinical practice in pediatrics. From 2000 to 2015, she worked at the Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, where she completed rotations in the neonatal ward, infectious disease ward, respiratory ward, and hematology ward. Having treated over 100,000 patients, she has accumulated extensive and detailed clinical diagnostic experience in pediatrics.

From the perspective of the entire Zhibei Pediatrician Team, the clinical capabilities of the medical team are strong. More importantly, all doctors share a common original aspiration: to create compassionate pediatric healthcare. 

Meanwhile, Zhao Qiang also hopes to build Zhibei Pediatrics’ own chain brand.

In recent years, with the introduction of favorable policies such as multi-site practice for physicians and the encouragement of private healthcare provision, an increasing number of doctors have left the public system to establish their own clinics. Notable examples include Dr. Yu Ying, the renowned emergency physician from Peking Union Medical College Hospital, who founded the United Family Healthcare General Outpatient Center in Beijing, and Dr. Martin, an Australian general practitioner, who established the “Almond Clinic” within a WeWork space in Shenyang. Evidently, physicians leaving the public sector to set up private clinics play a significant role in facilitating the decentralization of medical resources.

Meanwhile, driven by policies promoting tiered diagnosis and treatment and surging market demand, individual clinics, due to their small scale and limited resident coverage, are unable to meet patients’ healthcare needs.

In Zhao Qiang’s view, chain clinics may offer a solution to such healthcare access issues. Through standardized, unified management, chain institutions can effectively address core problems such as uneven physician competency, arbitrary charging, and non-standardized diagnostic and treatment processes and procedures, thereby building brand recognition to gain market acceptance and achieve scalable replication.

However, regarding payment, mid-to-high-end clinic models can initially address reimbursement through commercial insurance and out-of-pocket payments. Commercial insurers, acting as both payers and cost-containment entities, also drive patient volume. As China advances its national medical service price reforms, these clinics should strive to secure coverage under the National Basic Medical Insurance program.

“Zhibei Pediatrics will also be developed into a mid-to-high-end chain of branded clinics in the future.” Currently, many investors are optimistic about clinic chains. “We will also introduce capital investment, but our initial focus will remain on medical services.”

Just as the supermarket sector features both small, independent stores scattered throughout neighborhoods and massive large- and medium-sized chain supermarkets, the future of clinics will see a vibrant coexistence of independent practices embedded in local communities alongside branded chain clinics operating under unified standards.