CareLinker Secures Tens of Millions in Series A Funding, Targets Pharmacy-Based Chronic Disease Management Blue Ocean
VCBeat, March 30 — Carelinker Medical, a company specializing in big data services for chronic diseases, announced today that it has secured tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing from listed company Yongtai Technology and Fujian Yingke Venture Capital. Upon completion of the financing, Yongtai Technology will hold a 19% equity stake in Carelinker Medical. This signals the imminent rise of another player in the internet healthcare sector.
It is understood that Shanghai Carelinker is an internet healthcare company dedicated to providing chronic disease health services based on big data analytics. Its core team comprises returnee PhDs in medicine and information science, as well as MBAs from top U.S. business schools. The company emphasizes the deep integration of hardware and software products and, leveraging its health cloud computing platform, centers on two proprietary technologies: the "Disease Risk Prediction Model" and the "Personalized Nutrition and Exercise Intervention Expert System." It strives to build a tightly connected health management ecosystem linking "users, the cloud platform, and medical professionals."
“What is Lanxinkang?”
Lanxinkang is Shanghai Carelinker’s mobile healthcare brand for chronic disease management in the pharmacy sector. Leveraging Shanghai Carelinker’s software and hardware technologies, it engages users through pharmacies to deliver value.
The software suite includes: a cloud-based management system, three major mobile applications for doctors, pharmacies, and users, as well as an official WeChat account.
The hardware includes: smart blood pressure monitors and glucometers, spirometers, body fat analyzers, lipid profile analyzers, and HbA1c testers.
Usage: Utilize Lanxinkang’s smart blood pressure monitors and glucometers to upload users’ measurement results in real time to the cloud platform, ensuring convenience and accuracy while eliminating the hassle of manual recording.
Cloud data storage and mobile sharing: The cloud health platform helps store all historical data, facilitating pharmacy management and user data analysis. Pharmaceutical care and disease management services are based on patient testing data. Big data algorithms assess users’ health risks by analyzing their personal health data and historical test results, while a team of pharmacists and physicians delivers personalized services to users.
“Lanxinkang”App Introduction:
The Lanxinkang App is categorized into three versions tailored to different user groups: the Doctor Portal, the Pharmacy Portal, and the User Portal.
Client Side:The patient-facing app is divided into five major modules. Through these modules, patients can monitor their daily blood pressure, blood glucose, and other health metrics; manage daily dietary intake; develop personalized nutrition plans; and receive daily medication reminders. Additionally, users can create personal health records to access their health information and physical examination results.
Physician and Pharmacy Terminals:The interfaces and functionalities for doctors and pharmacies are largely identical, with a stronger emphasis on management compared to the user-facing side. By linking with WeChat, doctors can add patients’ WeChat accounts to facilitate communication. The knowledge section enables doctors to engage in continuous learning, while the doctor community facilitates the exchange of professional insights among peers. The management module allows doctors and pharmacies to query and manage their recent rankings, income, points, and other relevant metrics.
Why Start with Pharmacies?
Lanxinkang has chosen to partner with pharmacies, primarily for two reasons:
Although both pharmacies and hospitals directly serve patients as consumers, the frequency of patient visits to hospitals is significantly lower than that to pharmacies. Consequently, pharmacies are more closely integrated into patients’ daily lives, thereby facilitating the collection of big data on patients.
To boost pharmaceutical sales, pharmacies need more than just recommendations from doctors and sales staff; they require a consumer-centric mechanism that better serves patients. Only by creating new demand can new business models emerge. Therefore, compared to the free measurements and diagnoses currently offered by many pharmacies, Lanxinkang undoubtedly creates greater value for both parties, representing a positive-sum game that both pharmacies and consumers desire.
According to the 2015 Big Data Analysis Report issued by Lanxinkang, after adopting Lanxinkang’s solutions, pharmacies witnessed a 40% increase in sales of antihypertensive medications, an annual increase of 1.2 visits per customer, an improvement in medication adherence from 32% to 61%, and an 8% rise in the average transaction value for medications targeting the “three highs” (hypertension, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia). Additionally, hypertensive patients experienced an average reduction of 11–14 mmHg in systolic blood pressure and 6–7 mmHg in diastolic blood pressure.
Since its launch in 2015, Carelinker Medical’s product, Lanxinkang, has been adopted by 65 of the top 100 pharmacy chains across more than 38 cities in China, covering a total of 3,000 stores including those under Guoda Drugstore, Laobaixing Pharmacy, Yifeng Pharmacy, and Neptune Star. Nearly 10,000 pharmacists and store staff currently utilize Lanxinkang’s services. Given that community pharmacies represent an untapped “blue ocean” in the healthcare sector, the product boasts considerable growth potential.