How Daxiang Jiuyi Leverages Neusoft's 20-Year Healthcare Expertise to Enable Stress-Free Medical Care

On December 23, 2016, at the Beijing Star Base, Cao Yanlong, CEO of Daxiang Jiuyi, attended the “2016 Top 100 Future Healthcare Forum” hosted by VCBeat, where he shared the challenges and issues encountered during the entrepreneurial process, along with corresponding solutions.

The forum attracted over 500 attendees, including government officials, hospital presidents from Grade A tertiary hospitals, executives from listed companies and healthcare unicorns, as well as representatives from prominent media outlets. During the event, Li Datao, founder of VCBeat, joined guests in unveiling the “2016 China Future Healthcare Top 100” list, which selected 100 innovative Chinese medical enterprises representing the future of healthcare. The initiative aims to identify and harness the core driving forces shaping the future of China’s healthcare industry. Subsequently, awards were presented for the Most Influential Listed Company, Most Impactful Investment Firm, Most Promising Enterprise, Most Watched Enterprise, and Most Innovative Hospital President of 2016.

Daxiang Medical was established in late 2014, at the height of the online medical consultation boom. How does this “silver-spoon-born” platform provide you with a calm and composed healthcare experience?

“Daxiang Jiuyi” is backed by Neusoft Corporation, which has been dedicated to hospital informatization for over two decades. Currently, among the 12,000 public hospitals across China, Neusoft provides informatization services to more than 7,000 of them. “We possess abundant resources and extensive experience in collaborating with hospitals. Compared to other internet startups, Daxiang Jiuyi starts from a significantly higher baseline.”

In Cao Yanlong’s view, traditional healthcare is currently grappling with numerous challenges and is in a phase of transformation. Outdated methods of information exchange and the inefficient allocation of physician resources have exacerbated the difficulty of accessing medical care, even creating a vicious cycle. If the matching efficiency of medical resources—specifically, the alignment between patients and appropriate hospitals and physicians—can be improved, the problem of difficult access to medical care can be resolved.

Since its inception, “Daxiang Medical” has adhered to a patient-centric approach, providing a one-stop service experience covering pre-consultation, during-consultation, and post-consultation phases. Its key features include intelligent triage guidance, specialist consultations, smart patient routing, real-time appointment registration, off-site waiting, access to laboratory and diagnostic test reports, prescription inquiries, medical payment processing, and electronic medical records.

The intelligent triage feature analyzes user conditions to recommend the most suitable hospital and department, adhering to the principle of “seeking care at community clinics for minor ailments and at hospitals for serious conditions.” The appointment registration function allows users to book consultations based on specialists’ expertise and availability; users can also input their symptoms in advance to streamline communication. On the Daxiang Jiuyi App, patients can utilize the unique “video consultation” feature to communicate with doctors online and pay fees via UnionPay or Alipay. In the near future, the “medicine delivery to your doorstep” service will be available, truly enabling patients to receive medical care without leaving home. It is reported that the Daxiang Jiuyi App also supports online follow-up visits, saving time and effort for both patients and healthcare providers.

From the hospital perspective, Daxiang Jiuyi is committed to helping hospitals embrace “Internet+.” By leveraging mobile internet technologies, it significantly reduces the tedious and repetitive tasks of hospital window staff, improves service efficiency, enhances patients’ healthcare experience, and enables more rational allocation of medical resources.

Regarding the current trend of many hospitals developing single-hospital versions of apps, Cao Yanlong argues that if hospitals independently develop, operate, and promote their own apps, they will not only incur excessive costs and require substantial investments in manpower and resources, but the final outcomes may also fall short of expectations. In contrast, Daxiang Jiuyi (Elephant Medical Care) leverages Neusoft Group’s robust foundation in healthcare informatics, combined with a strong professional operations team, thereby enhancing user attraction for the platform and enabling hospitals to achieve better promotional results.

Like most internet healthcare startups, Daxiang Jiuyi has also established the Daxiang Internet Hospital. Although it entered the project relatively late, Daxiang Jiuyi still has significant room for growth. “As a late mover, we no longer need to invest heavily in market education, which can be considered a ‘dividend’ we are able to enjoy.”

Meanwhile, the company can also leverage Neusoft’s 20 years of experience in healthcare informatics and its government resources. “In particular, our involvement in policy formulation enables us to more accurately gauge the pace of healthcare reform policies,” said Cao Yanlong. “Internet-based healthcare does have viable business models, but it requires corresponding policy adjustments. For startups, the key is to be prepared to align with the rhythm of these adjustments.” This constitutes a critical competitive advantage for Daxiang Jiuyi.

Elephant Medical Care Internet Hospital is primarily built on the big data foundations of Elephant Doctor, Elephant Light Hospital, and Elephant Medical Care, forming an integrated ecosystem encompassing healthcare providers, daily living, pharmaceutical manufacturers, insurance, banking, wearable devices, and wellness. 

 Currently, Neusoft has provided Daxiang Juyi with access to resources from over 3,000 hospitals. It has signed agreements with more than 400 hospitals across over 30 provinces and municipalities in China, including Tianjin People’s Hospital and Beijing Tiantan Hospital. “If we initially launch Daxiang Juyi’s services at just 1,000 of these hospitals, it would already constitute a significant scale.”

Daxiang Healthcare aims to partner with 3,000 hospitals across 300 cities within the next three years, targeting a user base of over 100 million and a network of one million physicians.

Clearly, Cao Yanlong believes that the current environment is ripe for the rapid development of Daxiang Juyi. “In the future, we aim to connect all relevant stakeholders—hospitals, physicians, and insurance companies—on this platform, thereby integrating the entire industry chain.” This appears to be the business model envisioned by Daxiang Juyi.

“We hope that Daxiang Jiuyi can help every stakeholder in the healthcare industry enhance their medical care experience, make our lifestyles more relaxed and balanced, and enable China’s internet healthcare sector to continually improve the quality of life for the Chinese people.”