Haoyunbang: Bringing the Clinical Pathway for Infertility Treatment to Mobile Devices

Huang Sen holds a seven-year Master’s degree in Public Health from Peking University and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics. He has long been dedicated to the fields of healthcare informatics and mobile health, serving as a core executive at startups focused on hospital management and medical informatization. Additionally, his professional experience at companies such as Xi’an Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd. and GF Securities has provided him with a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the healthcare industry. In July 2014, after several months of research and reflection, Huang Sen officially launched the “Haoyunbang” project. The initiative aims to leverage mobile internet technologies to help patients with infertility better engage in their medical care, cooperate with physicians, adhere to medical advice, and achieve faster recovery. By integrating tools, community support, doctor-patient interaction, and offline treatment services, Haoyunbang has established an O2O (Online-to-Offline) platform dedicated to addressing infertility.

Functionally, Haoyunbang offers users customized disease management guidance, helping them record and manage their treatment processes. Patients can use Haoyunbang to document symptoms, manage medical records, and receive timely reminders for key information regarding medications, examinations, and clinical visits throughout their treatment. Additionally, the platform brings together reproductive medicine specialists to provide online consultation and follow-up services. Furthermore, Haoyunbang provides a private and secure community where users can share experiences and discuss their conditions.

Leveraging the Internet to Address Public Health Challenges

"Unlike the perspective of general clinical medical thinking, Huang Sen prefers to approach problems from a population and systemic standpoint. 'Clinicians generally aim to address individual issues, whereas public health professionals are more focused on resolving population-level problems.'"

Huang Sen believes that the commonality between internet healthcare and public health lies in the fact that both provide solutions for population-level issues. The internet can make public health work more efficient and convenient.

In the past, health education in the field of public health followed this model: gathering a certain number of attendees in a classroom and inviting a professor or physician to deliver lectures two or three times a week. In contrast, the internet-based health education model aggregates millions of users on online platforms, where physicians can share knowledge through videos, articles, and other formats. This approach transcends temporal and spatial constraints, reaches a broader audience, and enables more efficient dissemination.

The Lack of Disease Course Management Is the Biggest Pain Point for Infertility Patients

According to a report released by the China Population Association in 2009, there were over 40 million patients with infertility in China, accounting for approximately 12.5% of the population of childbearing age, which is equivalent to one in every eight couples being affected by infertility. It is reported that in 2008, the average annual direct medical expenditure per infertile couple was RMB 19,980. Despite the high costs, the willingness of infertility patients to undergo treatment remains extremely strong. Statistics show that 81% of infertility patients have received treatment, and 71% have undergone more than two rounds of treatment; however, up to 66% of patients experienced treatment failure, indicating very poor therapeutic outcomes. Based on an 81% consultation rate, the annual direct medical costs attributable to infertility amount to RMB 637.4 billion.

The fundamental reason for the persistent failure to treat infertility is not inadequate clinical expertise, but rather a lack of management throughout the treatment process. Infertility treatment is relatively complex and spans a long duration. Patients often lack basic guidance in seeking care, leading to fragmented, non-sequential treatments and prolonged, repetitive medical visits that hinder successful outcomes. Compounded by the significant psychological stress associated with the condition, most patients report poor healthcare experiences. Furthermore, physicians’ heavy workloads prevent them from dedicating sufficient time to managing patients’ treatment journeys, further exacerbating the issue of suboptimal patient experiences.

Huang Sen believes that although the treatment process for infertility is complex and protracted, its clinical treatment pathway is clear, which is highly conducive to managing the treatment process via internet-based solutions.

The clear clinical pathway for infertility is reflected in its relatively standardized and normative diagnosis and treatment processes. Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health have issued clinical treatment pathways for this condition. From a purely medical perspective, the theoretical clinical cure rate for infertility is high; with the exception of very few cases with unknown etiologies, it is treatable. From a product development standpoint, by scientifically presenting the course of the disease to users via internet-based platforms, patients are relieved from the burden of memorizing daily tasks during treatment. They can simply follow the prompts provided by the product, thereby avoiding the complexities associated with managing the infertility treatment journey and facilitating disease management for patients seeking medical care in different locations.

Haoyunbang APP User Interface

Generally, patients need to record key information during treatment, including basal body temperature, ovulation test strip results, symptoms, ultrasound-monitored ovulation, medical examinations, and medications used. All of these data points can be logged on the patient side of the Haoyunbang app. This information is compiled into a structured medical record, and the system provides personalized reminders based on the user’s condition. Patients can view their recorded metrics under “My Journey,” while physicians provide individualized fertility advice through the doctor’s portal. Additionally, patients can engage with the peer community in the “Circle” feature by posting comments, seeking answers, sharing successful pregnancy tips, and making wishes. Through interactions with other patients, they can also gain access to popular science health education.

Currently, the patient-facing platform of Haoyunbang primarily targets users in three stages of preconception care: those who have been trying to conceive for more than three months without success, those requiring treatment for gynecological conditions of varying severity, and those undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF).

On the physician side, doctors can manage patients in groups. Based on patient interactions, physicians can precisely match professional and targeted medical information or content to each patient, helping them understand their condition and treatment plan. This enables patients to be well-informed about their diagnosis, treatment, and potential future procedures, thereby improving the effectiveness of doctor-patient communication.

On the patient side, Haoyunbang structures patients’ self-managed disease course data, forming the foundation for physicians to manage their patient panels. Meanwhile, real-time transmission of patients’ disease progression records enables doctors to monitor clinical status continuously, thereby making interactions between both parties more targeted.

In the future, these structured data will to some extent become an important component of physicians’ scientific research. Furthermore, these structured data can be extensively mined.

Currently, the number of users on the Haoyunbang Doctor Platform has exceeded 3,000. These physicians are predominantly specialists from Grade III Class A hospitals, primarily concentrated in first- and second-tier cities.

The product was named “Haoyunbang” (Good Pregnancy Helper). On one hand, this name conveys the mission of helping patients with infertility manage their disease course; on the other, it reflects Huang Sen and his team’s hope that the product will truly bring users a touch of good “pregnancy” luck. Within the communities of those experiencing infertility, trying to conceive, or undergoing fertility treatment, there is a concept known as “passing on the good pregnancy stick,” which symbolizes passing along the good fortune of successful conception. The name “Haoyunbang” is a homophonic play on “good pregnancy stick.” As Huang Sen put it, “Our name can also serve as a good omen for people facing infertility.”

In December 2014, the first version of Haoyunbang’s patient-facing product was officially launched. This May, its physician-facing platform went live. In August, Haoyunbang secured tens of millions of RMB in Series A financing from GENE Capital, Sinopharm Capital (Songhe Capital), and Puhua Capital. Regarding the use of proceeds, Huang Sen stated that the funds would be primarily allocated to continuous product optimization, user base expansion, and establishing offline consultation channels between users and renowned specialists, thereby providing female patients with customized, differentiated, one-stop solutions for infertility treatment.