Shenzhen Yino Intelligence Files IPO Prospectus After Raising Nearly RMB 1 Billion Across Three Rounds in 12 Years of Oncology Radiotherapy Innovation
In the oncology radiotherapy industry, informatization can be divided into four levels based on the depth of its integration with medical care.The Most Superficial LayerAt the internet level, it provides reference and consultation on radiotherapy medical information for patients.Connection LayerIt is the hospital, including systems such as HIS, PACS, and EMR, that builds an interconnected platform for doctors and patients.Clinical LayerIt is a department that possesses clinical and diagnostic data for tumor radiotherapy, which requires years of understanding of radiotherapy clinical practice and technical accumulation.
The Deepest LayerIt refers to equipment, specifically tumor radiotherapy devices such as linear accelerators and Gamma Knife systems, encompassing the most valuable clinical data input and output. The collection and organization of data at the clinical and departmental levels are critical to healthcare informatization; in particular, achieving interoperability and integration of medical data at the device layer presents significant technical challenges.
“Shenzhen Yino, as the only company in China to have broken through the technical barriers of foreign manufacturers and mastered data interface technologies for accelerators from various brands“, addressing the pain points of the radiotherapy department’s most critical core equipment, where information silos among accelerator networks are widespread, treatment data across different brands of accelerators cannot be interconnected, tumor radiotherapy data cannot be shared, and clinical data is difficult to retrospectively analyze.” During an interview with Li Qiang, founder of Shenzhen InnoRay, VCBeat reported that he confidently emphasized their advantages to the journalist.As the first company in China to engage in the digital acquisition and processing of radiotherapy data, Shenzhen Inno has accumulated 12 years of experience and completed three rounds of financing, each amounting to approximately RMB 100 million.
Founder: Li Qiang
Li Qiang initially worked in foreign trade. He came to Shenzhen in 2002 to pursue his career and, through a friend’s introduction, became acquainted with the oncology radiation therapy industry. Radiation therapy is the most mainstream of the three primary cancer treatment modalities (the other two being surgery and chemotherapy). Li Qiang believed that this sector was more resilient to economic cycles than foreign trade and offered promising prospects. Consequently, he conducted in-depth research and found that at the time, there was no comprehensive information system in hospital-based radiation therapy. Oncology radiation therapy data were stored in a fragmented and unstructured manner across various medical systems, preventing efficient and rational utilization as well as higher-level integrated analysis.
He subsequently resigned and founded Shenzhen Inno in 2004. At that time, radiotherapy was an emerging and highly specialized industry in China, requiring multidisciplinary expertise in software technology, network technology, clinical medicine, oncology, and medical physics. However, there were no domestic products or research initiatives in this field, and only one foreign company could be identified. Undeterred, Li Qiang navigated this uncharted territory through independent exploration and development.
As an information technology company, data is the foundation; only by acquiring data can subsequent research and development be conducted.However, radiotherapy equipment is expensive. Initially, no hospitals in China were willing to let Yinuo tinker with the devices, fearing it would disrupt normal operations the following day. Moreover, China lacked core technologies for radiotherapy equipment, and the data interface technologies of accelerators from various brands had not yet been mastered., these are all significant challenges in the development process of Yinuo.
It was not until 2009, at an exhibition, that Yinuo’s explorations and preliminary achievements in informatics for oncology radiotherapy caught the attention of the expert team from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (the hospital with the strongest academic capabilities in China’s radiation oncology industry). This ultimately led to an in-depth clinical collaboration with the hospital. In the following years, Yinuo worked deeply within the hospital’s infrastructure to fully integrate data from the most fundamental treatment equipment, successfully addressing the core challenge of data integration in radiotherapy. Perhaps only the entrepreneurs themselves can truly appreciate the hardships endured during those five years.
From 2013 to 2014, internet-based healthcare gradually emerged. In the field of oncology, in addition to ensuring robust data storage, the application of various new technologies and comprehensive treatment modalities has become increasingly reliant on the integration and processing of data across different systems. The sharing of information and experience among multiple hospitals has grown ever more important, while both physicians and patients require more efficient, streamlined communication as well as diversified and convenient approaches to clinical work and medical care. To address these needs, Shenzhen Yinuo, building upon its existing data integration technologies for radiotherapy equipment,Developed an oncology medical data integration platform and clinical, telemedicine, and mobile applications, to address these issues.
Yinuo centers on the Oncology Information System (OIS), connecting linear accelerators, Gamma Knife, CyberKnife, CT scanners, and other oncology equipment on one side, while integrating with existing systems such as Hospital Information Systems (HIS) and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), as well as treatment information for surgery and chemotherapy, web applications, and oncology data. Meanwhile, the system also links radiotherapy workstations, radiotherapy information management, mobile applications, and various clinical application systems. By integrating multi-level data resources across oncology care, it enables the development and application of clinical, mobile, and remote solutions.
In addition,Medinno also enables the recording and verification of treatment data from various therapeutic devices, such as linear accelerators, the automated collection and documentation of clinical data, and the integration of healthcare data at the hospital level.. It includes patient diagnosis and treatment information, enabling structured and electronic storage and management of comprehensive oncology medical records, optimization of radiotherapy workflows and quality control management, as well as comprehensive analysis, thereby improving the efficiency and quality of work for healthcare professionals and providing comprehensive data support and analysis for clinical practice, management, and scientific research.
Among them,The Record and Verify System, which integrates data among radiotherapy devices, constitutes the technological core of the Yinuo Radiotherapy Information Management System., a radiotherapy record and verification system that transmits radiotherapy planning data to the linear accelerator, performs real-time validation of treatment parameters, and documents treatment outcomes. It supports linear accelerators from major manufacturers, features a rigorous framework for radiotherapy data transmission and control to ensure treatment safety, and serves as the foundation for the digitalization of oncology radiotherapy.
Based on data integration, Yinuo has also developed a series of functional application products at the clinical application level, including:
Radiotherapy Contouring Workstation: The radiotherapy contouring workstation is a fully Chinese-language clinical software for delineating radiotherapy target volumes, offering a variety of contouring tools that enableAutomatic and manual contouring, supporting multi-modal image registration and 3D structural reconstruction, to help doctors delineate target volumes more efficiently.
Appointment and Queuing System: The appointment and queuing system is a convenient scheduling, intelligent calling, and triage queue management system designed for radiotherapy consultation rooms, simulation rooms, and treatment rooms.
Advanced Planning Assessment Workstation: This is a software application suite for evaluating radiotherapy treatment plans. Its primary functions include the assessment of physical dose and equivalent biological dose. When implementing modern radiotherapy techniques such as IMRT, SRS, and SBRT in clinical practice, it provides an intuitive and convenient method for evaluating the biological effects on various anatomical structures, serving as a powerful tool for conducting clinical research and summarizing findings on novel radiotherapy technologies.
Radiotherapy Collaboration Technology Platform: On the basis of achieving data interoperability within individual tumor diagnosis and treatment centers, build a radiotherapy collaboration technology cloud platform to realize the interconnection and integration of tumor data among different hospitals, and cooperate with Varian Medical Systems, the world's largest manufacturer of radiotherapy equipment, to lay out the development and construction of a remote radiotherapy planning and quality control platform.
Yinuo has also facilitated the flow and application of oncology medical data in mobile value-added services on the physician side, by analyzing oncology medical data, it provides physicians with functional applications such as critical value alerts, task reminders, patient treatment progress tracking, and scheduling plans;On the patient side, leveraging oncology medical data to provide patients with functional applications such as remote consultations, treatment guidance, anomaly alerts, and follow-up visit reminders.
Other companies specializing in radiotherapy within the oncology field include Quanyu Medical, Lianxin Technology, and Purun Medical.Compared to them, Yinuo’s greatest advantage lies in its years of technological accumulation and extensive practical experience derived from clinical applications across a large customer base.
Interconnected Data Sharing in Tumor Radiotherapy：Yinuo is the only domestic company to have broken through the technical barriers of foreign manufacturers and mastered the data interface technologies for accelerators of various brands,Resolved the widespread issue of information silos among accelerators in radiation oncology departments, where treatment data across different brands of accelerators could not be interconnected, tumor radiotherapy data could not be shared, and clinical data was difficult to review and analyze.
Quality Control in the Process of Tumor Radiotherapy：Distinct from the traditional radiation therapy quality control management concept that focuses solely on radiotherapy equipment, a comprehensive quality control concept for the entire radiation therapy process is proposed.，and embed it into a standardized quality control management platform for radiotherapy processes, digitally transform and optimize the radiotherapy workflow to support collaboration among different equipment and personnel within the radiotherapy center, achieving standardization of radiotherapy medical records, normalization of process management, visualization of task management, and platform-based departmental management. This approach centralizes the management of medical risks scattered across various stages of the radiotherapy process, effectively reducing the probability of medical errors in radiotherapy.
Effective Integration of Oncology Medical Data：Establishment of an Electronic Medical Record Information Retrieval Database and a Structured Storage Management System for Radiotherapy Medical Records, in light of the characteristic that cancer treatment typically involves comprehensive, cross-disciplinary management by multiple specialties and departments, an MDT (Multidisciplinary Team) comprehensive consultation platform has been provided to achieve effective integration of oncology treatment data across relevant departments, thereby addressing the clinical pain points of fragmented MDT consultation data and difficulties in data sharing.
In 2016, in addition to acquiring more than 140 new hospital clients, YINUO established a joint Oncology Informatics Laboratory with the Department of Engineering Physics at Tsinghua University; formed a strategic partnership with Varian (China), the world’s largest manufacturer of radiation therapy equipment; signed comprehensive research collaboration agreements on oncology informatics with the Chinese PLA General Hospital (301 Hospital) and the Guizhou Provincial Radiation Therapy Quality Control Center; and entered into strategic cooperation agreements with Kangkang Check-up Network, the tumor doctor-patient platform Yijiayi, and the Anti-Cancer Assistant.and was honored as a key supported entity for strategic emerging industries by the Shenzhen Municipal Government, receiving tens of millions of yuan in special fund support.
# Future DevelopmentLi Qiang told reporters that, on the basis of achieving integration of oncology medical data and establishing technical collaboration among multiple hospitals, Yinuo will carry out remote collaboration for radiotherapy planning. This initiative will establish operational linkages between central hospitals and secondary-level grassroots hospitals, with central hospitals providing remote radiotherapy treatment planning and professional guidance to secondary hospitals. The goal is to ensure the effective application of advanced radiotherapy technologies in secondary hospitals through remote planning design and professional guidance, thereby achieving efficient allocation of resources. Currently, this technology has been piloted in selected hospitals and is scheduled for market-wide promotion in 2017.
In terms of its revenue model, in addition to direct system sales, Yinuo will leverage its oncology clinical data application platform to expand collaborations and applications across broader fields, thereby achieving greater economic and social benefits.
Currently, Yinuo has more than 100 employees, and its systems are being used by radiation therapy centers in over 300 hospitals across China. In terms of financing,Yinuo secured RMB 13 million in its Series A financing round in 2013, RMB 20 million in its Series B round in 2014, and RMB 55 million in its Series C round in 2015 from Fenxiang Investment, Hongjinwen Fund, and Shenzhen Nuoxiangsui.