CareVoice Aims to Transform Healthcare Transparency with Patient-Driven Experience Sharing Platform

The pilot version of Kangyu, initially launched in Shanghai, garnered over 10,000 reviews covering hospital services, physician consultations, and pharmaceuticals within just three months. To date, the platform has registered more than 30,000 users. Many patients have posted reviews based on their personal medical experiences after receiving care at hospitals, with the number of valid reviews currently exceeding 20,000.

The image above shows Gao Sai, CEO of Kangyu.

One Platform, Dual Benefits

“Kangyu is a mobile health application dedicated to providing patients with an open, transparent, and trustworthy platform for medical evaluations. By facilitating information sharing through user reviews, Kangyu helps patients identify the best medical services, hospitals, physicians, and treatment plans, enabling them to make optimal healthcare decisions based on their individual needs.” This is how Gao Sai, CEO of Kangyu, described the app’s functionality to a reporter from VCBeat.

On the Kangyu app, comprehensive information on hospitals, doctors, and medical services is provided. After receiving medical care, patients can post reviews about their healthcare experiences on Kangyu based on their actual visits, thereby sharing insights with one another. This is akin to posting targeted reviews in the relevant product section after purchasing an item. These reviews offer valuable references for other patients seeking similar medical services. Patients can also search for hospitals, doctors, or medications on the platform; Kangyu employs specific algorithms to provide users with optimal choices, guiding them toward personalized and scientifically grounded search results.

“I wanted to go to a hospital for a check-up and consult a doctor about a gastrointestinal issue, but I wasn’t sure which hospital was the best. I didn’t fully trust the answers I found through direct online searches, and I accidentally discovered the Kangyu app. I used the app to look up hospitals and chose one with the most positive reviews based on user comments. After visiting the hospital, I found it to be quite reliable. Overall, I feel that the reviews on Kangyu are genuine and provide valuable reference.” said a Kangyu app user from Shanghai.

Kangyu places patient experience at its core, providing an open, trustworthy, and reliable platform that empowers users to make better healthcare decisions based on their individual needs. In addition to offering medical consultation references, Kangyu has also built a healthy community for medical interaction.

When it comes to Kangyu’s community building, Gao Sai spoke with great enthusiasm: “On the Kangyu platform, patients can find others who share similar experiences. Going through comparable health challenges makes it easier for patients to connect and bridge the distance between them. Within the Kangyu community, patients get to know one another, offer mutual encouragement, share treatment experiences, and face their illnesses together. To support this, we have also established WeChat groups to encourage people to ask questions and share insights.”

It is reported that Kangyu has organized WeChat communities where participants can interact and share experiences. Currently, Kangyu has established more than 20 groups, with a total membership exceeding 10,000.

In addition to empowering C-end patients and other consumers to make better healthcare decisions, Kangyu also enables B-end stakeholders—including physicians, hospitals, and healthcare institutions—to gain deeper insights into patient care experiences. This helps them identify areas for improvement, continuously enhance the quality of medical services, improve the scientific rigor of treatment plans, and boost patient satisfaction. By leveraging continuous feedback and iterative improvements, physicians, hospitals, and healthcare institutions can also benefit from delivering optimal patient care experiences.

Kangyu has delivered tangible commercial value to medical service providers, attracting numerous partners for collaboration. Currently, more than 20 medical service institutions have partnered with Kangyu, including public healthcare institutions such as Ruijin Hospital and Shanghai American-Sino Women’s and Children’s Medical Services.

Kangyu has entered into a partnership with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the South Campus of Dongfang Hospital, which is jointly operated with Natecia, France’s largest private obstetrics and gynecology hospital. Ms. Shao Xiaofeng, Quality Director at Dongfang Hospital’s South Campus, stated, “Our primary mission is to provide patients with the most standardized and satisfactory medical services. Our collaboration with Kangyu not only offers us a new platform for obtaining authentic patient feedback but also helps us target improvements in healthcare service quality, thereby meeting patient expectations.”

Seize the Opacity of the Healthcare Sector to Open Up the Market

Currently, information asymmetry between doctors and patients is a prominent feature of China’s healthcare sector. From the patient’s perspective, there is considerable “ignorance” regarding prices and medical services during the care-seeking process: patients are unaware of physicians’ actual capabilities, professional competence, ethical standards, and fee structures. Meanwhile, as professionals who have undergone years of specialized training, physicians possess substantially more knowledge than patients about diseases, treatment options, expected outcomes, and related matters. This information asymmetry engenders patient anxiety and erodes trust in physicians, while opacity in hospital treatment processes and billing further exacerbates the trust deficit caused by such asymmetry.

“Shortly after I arrived in China, I discovered that the lack of transparency in healthcare services was a severe issue. Patients exhibited considerable caution toward hospitals and physicians, reflecting a significant trust deficit. As a result, patients flocked to high-tier public hospitals, such as Grade 3A institutions, even for minor ailments like the common cold. Conversely, lower-tier public hospitals or private facilities struggled to attract patients, despite having highly professional medical staff. It was precisely in response to this situation that we developed Kangyu, an app designed to address opacity in the healthcare sector through an online platform,” explained Gao Sai, describing his rationale for creating Kangyu.

Due to the lack of foundational trust, healthcare institutions struggle to provide information to patients in a direct, effective, and comprehensive manner. Furthermore, many patients do not fully adhere to physicians’ recommendations for further treatment. Healthcare providers, such as hospitals, lack effective means to track patient feedback and build trust and reputation. Kangyu leverages mutual trust among patients to open up communication channels, thereby reducing opacity in the healthcare sector.

Target Audience: Upper-Middle Class

User data from Kangyu shows that the majority of registered users on the Kangyu app are middle-to-upper-income individuals aged 25–40, predominantly female. This target user group exhibits two key characteristics: first, they have a strong willingness to seek consultations and share their experiences; second, their numbers are growing rapidly, and they possess considerable purchasing power.

“They are more inclined to look up relevant information before going to the hospital, rather than seeking medical care blindly. Moreover, after receiving medical services, they are more willing to share their healthcare experiences via Kangyu. Notably, 35% of the reviews are highly positive (five-star ratings), indicating that users are eager to share favorable medical experiences,” said Gao Sai with considerable enthusiasm.

Regarding the second characteristic, Gao Sai also has his own judgment. He believes that the proportion of the upper-middle class among China’s urban residents is currently around 17%, and will reach 60% by 2020. This demographic is willing to pay for better services.

International Professional Team

Having worked for a decade at Sanofi, a world-leading pharmaceutical group, Gao Sai has come to deeply appreciate that transparency of information regarding hospitals, physicians, and treatment regimens is crucial for patients.

Among the founding team of Kangyu, some members graduated from medical schools at prestigious universities and later pursued advanced studies at European business schools; others are former colleagues of Gao Sai from leading global pharmaceutical groups, bringing work experience from the United States, Mexico, France, China, and other regions around the world. The local partner recruited by Gao Sai is a seasoned expert who has specialized in localized marketing for many years, with 15 years of experience in advertising and marketing. The combination of the team’s international perspective and local expertise makes Kangyu’s future even more promising.

“When I first started my venture, I wasn’t sure whom to recruit; our team was gradually built throughout the entrepreneurial journey. A team is critically important for a startup. I strive to bring in professionals with cross-disciplinary experience. Our current team comprises talents in technology, digital marketing, product design, and other fields. I believe that only such a professional and diverse combination can enable the team to go further,” said Gao Sai.

Currently, Kangyu has secured approximately RMB 5 million in investment and is considering further financing plans.