Huiyi Online App: The 'Tmall' of Healthcare Platforms That Wins Hospital Directors’ Hearts Files for IPO

While numerous internet healthcare projects rack their brains trying to figure out how to lure doctors out of hospitals to provide services for patients, one company has quietly entered hospitals, helping them achieve “Internet Plus” transformation. This approach has made doctors willing to return to and stay in hospitals, successfully winning the hearts of hospital directors.

Beijing Huiyi Online Technology Co., Ltd. is a medical internet information service enterprise. Its flagship product, the Huiyi Online APP, is committed to building a “Tmall” for healthcare by providing B2C online video consultations. In this model, “B” refers to hospitals at all levels. These hospitals join the Huiyi Online APP as entire institutions. Patients complete their medical histories on the platform and upload relevant materials such as laboratory tests, examinations, and imaging records. They then select time slots to make appointments and conduct real-time, one-on-one online video consultations with specialists. The specialists provide consultation opinions and further arrange offline diagnosis and treatment. As a professional third-party internet healthcare service platform, Huiyi Online APP provides technology and services to hospitals. Through this collaboration, hospitals can achieve an “Internet Plus” transformation with zero investment. This creates a win-win situation for hospitals, doctors, and patients alike.

Huiyi Online APP Hospital List Interface

Building a “Tmall” for Healthcare: Paving the Way for the B2C Model

He Yi, CEO of the Huiyi Online APP, told VCBeat that a common situation in Chinese hospitals today is the lack of internet-based doctor-patient interactions. It will be necessary for every hospital to move certain tasks that can be completed online to digital platforms in the future. Many light consultation companies currently on the market have already proven that the model of doctors providing simple consultation services to patients via the internet is feasible. However, Huiyi Online APP is taking a different path—the B2C model. On the platform built by Huiyi Online APP, whether for online consultations or image reading, it is medical institutions, not individual doctors, who initiate these services.

He Yi stated that the primary reasons for choosing this model, with medical institutions as the main service providers, are as follows.

1. In the future, the healthcare service landscape, dominated by hospitals—particularly public hospitals—will remain unchanged. Although models such as multi-site practice, independent practice, and physician groups are gradually emerging, they will not undermine the central role of hospitals in healthcare delivery. He Yi believes that a key initiative for “hospitals + internet” in the future will be to establish their own online consultation systems, much like companies set up customer service platforms. This would enable physicians to conduct online consultations under hospital arrangements, thereby creating value for both hospitals and patients.

2. In terms of doctor-patient interaction, the C2C model is currently the most common consultation model in internet healthcare. Doctors can register on existing consultation-oriented platforms to connect directly with patients and answer their questions. With substantial subsidies, doctors can earn satisfactory income on these platforms; however, this model largely relies on doctors’ private, fragmented time. He Yi believes that doctors spend 70%–80% of their time in hospitals, leaving limited personal spare time. In the future, top-tier doctors in China will ultimately return to public hospitals, where their primary time, energy, and value creation for patients should be concentrated, rather than being spent on internet platforms or in private clinics. Therefore, building an internet platform that leverages doctors’ fragmented time to provide services may gain significant popularity in the short term, but it is insufficient to support a sustainable business model in the long run.

3. For hospitals, the key pain points are as follows: smaller hospitals suffer from insufficient patient volumes and a lack of public trust, whereas larger hospitals are overcrowded and burdened with a significant number of unnecessary visits. What hospitals truly need are “high-value” patients, and their goal is to provide diagnosis and treatment for complex and refractory conditions that align with their clinical capabilities. However, the current healthcare service system fails to facilitate effective doctor-patient communication and patient triage.

Given that physicians are motivated to leverage the internet and hospitals are driven to participate in the “Internet Plus” initiative, the Huiyi Online App has established such a platform. By collaborating with hospitals and signing agreements, it enables physicians to allocate a portion of their regular working hours to conduct online consultations and follow-up care.

A Triple Win for Hospitals, Physicians, and Patients

Since its launch on October 17, 2015, the Huiyi Online APP has received enthusiastic responses from numerous hospitals within three months. Currently, 20 hospitals have signed admission agreements with the platform, and 13 of them have officially launched their online hospital services. These include prominent institutions such as the General Hospital of the Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Navy General Hospital, Coal General Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou People's Hospital, Zhengzhou Children's Hospital, Hebei General Hospital, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shaanxi Provincial Tumor Hospital, Nanjing First Hospital, and Hefei First People's Hospital. It is reported that Huiyi Online plans to collaborate with 400 large and medium-sized hospitals across China to establish official online hospitals, enabling patients nationwide to access medical consultations without leaving home.

Moreover, without any promotional efforts, the number of user appointments on the Huiyi Online app is currently increasing by more than 10 cases per day.

To achieve such results, He Yi attributes the success to the Huiyi Online APP, which allows hospitals, doctors, and patients to benefit simultaneously.

For hospitals, the Huiyi Online app addresses pain points faced by both small and large institutions. For smaller hospitals, it serves as an effective promotional platform to attract more patients. For larger hospitals, it helps retain physicians by encouraging them to focus more of their time and efforts on the hospital. Additionally, hospitals can acquire more “high-net-worth” patients through physicians’ online consultations. During these online interactions, physicians can screen and identify patients whose conditions align with the hospital’s specialized treatment capabilities.

For physicians, the internet enables them to generate legitimate income during their working hours. He Yi introduced that the income physicians earn on the Huiyi Online APP is no lower than that on other platforms. Furthermore, the fees paid to physicians are borne by the users. The Huiyi Online APP does not provide subsidies to physicians; it only establishes a period of free clinic services when initially launching at a hospital to help build the hospital’s reputation.

Doctors and users conduct video consultations on the Huiyi Online app.

For patient users, all physicians available on the Huiyi Online app are associate chief physicians or above from partner hospitals. After placing an order, users can select their preferred physician and schedule a consultation time. During the scheduled slot, users can engage in direct video consultations with the physician, eliminating the need for responses mediated by physician assistants. Additionally, users can share their imaging data and medical records with the physician through the platform. Notably, the platform also features a “Waiting Room,” where users can interact with other patients while awaiting their video consultation.

Huiyi Online APP Waiting Room Interface

He Yi told VCBeat that the Huiyi Online app has set up dedicated online video consultation rooms in partner hospitals and will assign a dedicated staff member to each hospital. The staff member will remind the respective doctors to report to the consultation room for work according to the physician schedule established by the hospital.

Team Introduction

It is understood that the Huiyi Online APP was jointly initiated and established by Hejia Shares (stock code: 300273), a listed company, along with well-known domestic institutions and their management teams, as well as seasoned industry professionals. In terms of product development and technological research, the company boasts a high-caliber R&D team of over 100 members, comprising medical experts, programmers, and software engineers with extensive experience in product development.

Hejia Shares, hailed within the industry as “China’s First Anti-Cancer Stock,” is a leader in oncology department development and medical resource platforms. Over nearly two decades of growth, Hejia Shares has not only accumulated profound expertise in medical technology but also gained significant advantages in integrating related medical diagnostic, treatment resources, and data.

He Yi, CEO of Huiyi Online, holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy of Science and Technology from the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an EMBA from CEIBS (China Europe International Business School). He has previously served as a staff member of the Communist Youth League Committee at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Director of the Office and Assistant to the Dean of the School of Continuing Education at the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fund Management Director and Vice President of China Science & Merchants Capital Investment Group, and Deputy General Manager of Mengdong Energy Holdings Company.