Jiankangle Files IPO Prospectus, Aiming to Expand Its Online Medical Consultation and Appointment Platform

With the explosive growth of mobile internet, online healthcare has entered a period of rapid development since 2014. The market size is projected to reach $23 billion by 2017, with a compound annual growth rate exceeding 50%.

Internet healthcare is no longer a subject of speculative hype but an inevitable trend. The conditions for the large-scale development of Internet healthcare in China are now largely in place. Four major drivers—social factors (an aging population and uneven distribution of medical resources), technological advancements (the explosion of mobile internet), capital influx (large-scale entry of venture capital), and policy support (strong government backing)—have become the primary forces propelling the growth of Internet healthcare. Consequently, Internet healthcare apps from various sectors have flooded the market. Among the numerous service-oriented applications, offerings generally fall into four core scenarios: health management, chronic disease monitoring, assisted diagnosis, and online consultation and appointment scheduling.

After more than a year of researching internet healthcare, I have also examined many mobile products, such as Chunyu Doctor, Ask a Doctor, Ping An Good Doctor, and Baidu Doctor. Among them, the one I am particularly optimistic about is an understated yet meticulously developed app: Jiankangle App.

The Jiankangle App is an online appointment registration and consultation service software developed by Jiankangle Software Co., Ltd. It is a product of Donghua Software, a traditional HIS vendor, as it expanded into internet healthcare. Leveraging its strengths in offline traditional HIS systems, the platform has integrated more than 3,000 physicians from public hospitals at Grade II Class A level or above, including doctors from over 200 nationally renowned Grade III Class A hospitals, thereby ensuring the quality of medical services.

To date, within the competitive landscape of internet healthcare, few apps truly prioritize physician quality. Most platforms fail to implement rigorous vetting processes for their doctors, with some even including practitioners from township health centers and village clinics.

Jiankangle (www.jiankangle.com) was launched in mid-November 2014, with its initial business focusing primarily on health consultations and doctor-patient communication. In early 2015, the company expanded its scope of services. By integrating hospitals’ internal and external networks, Jiankangle provides comprehensive health services ranging from health management and information consulting to appointment scheduling, registration, patient guidance, medical treatment, and post-discharge rehabilitation, thereby establishing an integrated internet-based industry loop encompassing healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. The platform creates a convenient, efficient, time-saving, and cost-effective healthcare experience for users. Its follow-up system offers internet-based support for physicians to conduct safe and efficient clinical practice and patient follow-ups, helping to reduce medical costs.

The module focuses on chronic disease management, combining education with entertainment to popularize medical knowledge among the general public and promote chronic disease health management products and the concept of lifelong health management to patients. "Health Le," which integrates with the hospital’s internal network system, features "Pocket Hospital" as a key component of its app. Through this feature, patients can schedule appointments, make online payments, and query or print laboratory test results, thereby alleviating difficulties in accessing medical care and improving healthcare efficiency. Physicians can use it for mobile patient management and handling administrative tasks on the go.

The above section provides an overview based on the original product description of Jiankangle. Below, we will take a closer look at this software to highlight its unique features:

(1) One-on-One Targeted Consultation

The Jiankangle app offers a fairly comprehensive suite of internet healthcare services. Its online appointment and consultation features are based on a directed consultation model, facilitating one-on-one communication between patients and physicians. Initially, there were many concerns about this approach: In a highly competitive landscape for both users and doctors, would directed consultations attract sufficient patient volume? Furthermore, without the competitive dynamic of doctors vying to answer posted questions, how can rapid response times to patient inquiries be ensured?

So, the editor registered a user account to test it personally and found that doctors’ response times were quite fast. Through dozens of consultations, responses were generally guaranteed within 1–10 minutes. Such rapid replies naturally spark curiosity about how the developers managed to motivate doctors to respond so proactively. The editor will not delve further into this matter, but it can be said that the Jiankangle product employs a unique question-answering mechanism.
This leads to the second question: Which user groups are best suited for this targeted consultation model? Driven by this inquiry, I conducted an in-depth exploration of the Jiankangle App. I put myself in the shoes of various users—patients with urgent medical needs, those seeking lightweight consultations, or even individuals without any health issues who were simply looking to pass the time out of sheer boredom. Throughout my experience with the app, I discovered that users across all these categories could find valuable content and services.

In my opinion, users with rigid demand must have some offline medical experience, possess an understanding of their condition, and have undergone professional examinations at hospitals. These users have a need to track daily changes in their condition, enabling them to monitor their health status anytime and anywhere without leaving home. This includes knowing the severity of their condition, when to seek medical attention, and when to collect prescriptions.

The primary concern of users utilizing light consultation services is the fear that physicians' advice will lack reference value or yield results similar to those obtained through Baidu searches.

By posing questions about cold symptoms to doctors on several common online consultation platforms, the editor observed varying responses. For identical free inquiries regarding cold symptoms, some consultation apps responded by having doctors ask about the patient’s specific symptoms. However, before the patient even provided details, these doctors immediately recommended medications. It is well known that cold-like symptoms can stem from various underlying causes; in some cases, they may be indicative of other diseases. Even when limited to the common cold, distinctions exist between the ordinary cold and influenza. Providing instant medication recommendations without a clear description of the patient’s specific symptoms raises serious concerns: Could such hasty advice lead to adverse health outcomes? Does this approach truly reflect a physician’s commitment to responsible patient care?

(2) Who Are the Real Experts?

The most critical component of a medical app is not the breadth of its features or the flashiness of its UI design, but rather whether it possesses robust physician resources to effectively address patients’ disease-related issues.

Jiankangle is a wholly-owned subsidiary sponsored by Donghua Software Co., Ltd., which has many years of experience in developing Hospital Information Systems (HIS). Currently, Donghua provides HIS solutions to 300 hospitals, covering comprehensive process management including registration, rational drug use, medical imaging, laboratory testing, and electronic medical records. It ranks first in market share, with clients among the top three hospitals in every province, such as Peking Union Medical College Hospital and West China Hospital. The company has also added an HRP (Hospital Resource Planning) system, essentially an ERP for hospitals, focusing on internal management. In other words, it holds substantial advantages in terms of medical resources and professional networks, and possesses a deeper understanding of physicians’ needs compared to internet-born companies.

Internet healthcare is one of the last sectors entered by the internet industry, due to its high entry barriers and stringent requirements for medical resources. Therefore, Jiankangle’s greatest advantage lies in its decade-long relationships with major hospitals, which explains why it has been able to recruit such a large number of online physicians in a short period.

The online consultation services offered by the Jiankangle App are available in two forms: paid and free. 1. Free Clinics: This is a voluntary service provided by physicians from Tier-2 Grade-A hospitals and above across China. Doctors may offer free consultations to increase their consultation volume, which is presumed to improve their ranking on the platform. 2. Text/Image or Phone Consultations: Users can consult renowned experts through paid services.

The "Self-Diagnosis" system on Jiankangle allows users to conduct self-checks and gain insights into their medical conditions.

(3) Unique Medical Record Folder Management

Electronic medical records (EMRs) have been available in the healthcare market for many years, yet few have truly satisfied both physicians and patients. Through interviews with physicians using the local “Jiankangle” app, we found that they are relatively satisfied with this EMR system. Patients can join their physician’s follow-up system by scanning a WeChat QR code, complete follow-up forms as scheduled, and enable timely tracking of disease progression and patient management by physicians. Patients can also view their own medical records and case histories. In the new version of the Jiankangle software, the previously standalone follow-up system and medical record folder have been integrated.

Under "My" Medical Records, patients can create their own medical records to document their healthcare visits and conditions.

First, when patients hold a medical card from a hospital partnered with Hejiankangle, they can input the card information into the Pocket Hospital platform. Here, patients can schedule appointments and register for consultations. After the consultation, they receive electronic diagnostic reports and e-prescriptions from their physicians, and can pay fees online. Currently, common online payment methods such as Alipay and UnionPay are supported. The subsequent access to electronic reports significantly reduces the time spent queuing at hospitals.

After the patient and physician initiate their first in-person consultation, the patient can access the follow-up platform for complimentary follow-up care and communication with the physician. For instance, following hospitalization, the patient can communicate with the physician through the follow-up system.

Through an analysis of multiple medical apps, the editor believes that truly realizing "Internet + Healthcare" requires closely connecting hospitals, doctors, and patients via the internet, thereby providing personalized, professional, and human-centric medical services to hospitals, patients, and health-conscious individuals, thus gradually achieving the vision of the "Future Hospital."

This article is published by VCBeat with authorization from Li Dong. The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the position of VCBeat.