DoctorTree Files IPO Prospectus: A Post-Discharge Platform Empowering Physicians with Responsibility, Reputation, and Revenue

Doctor Tree, founded by Chen Guanwei, is positioned as a doctor-patient communication platform for post-consultation and post-hospitalization care. In an exclusive interview with VCBeat, Chen Guanwei, CEO of Beijing Shanhaishu Technology Co., Ltd., emphasized that such platforms represent the future trend of the industry. They can better enable internet healthcare to return to its core medical essence and feature a sustainable “long-tail” business model.

Chen Guanwei introduced to VCBeat that Shanhaishu Technology is one of the first batch of internet healthcare startups in China. Prior to launching its B2C product, Doctor Tree, Shanhaishu Technology had spent three years cultivating and accumulating experience in doctor-patient communication through a B2B model. The Doctor Tree model resembles WeChat, focusing on building strong post-discharge doctor-patient relationships. It assists physicians in providing aftercare services, thereby enabling them to achieve professional responsibility, reputation, and financial rewards simultaneously.

Doctor Tree System DiagramShanhai Tree, Built with Internet Thinking, Is Among the First Batch of Internet Healthcare Startups in ChinaShanhaishu Technology was founded in May 2011. Its core founder, Pei Dan, studied and worked in the United States for over a decade, earning a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California. Before returning to China to start his own business, he served as a Principal Researcher at AT&T Research, where he led big data research initiatives. As one of the pioneers in mobile health, AT&T currently employs Eric Topol, author of *The Patient Will See You Now* (Chinese title: *Disrupting Healthcare*), which has had a significant impact on domestic healthcare companies, as its Chief Medical Officer.Learn About "The Creative Destruction of Medicine"). Meanwhile, leading U.S. mobile health companies WellDoc and CardioNet have also engaged in deep collaborations with AT&T. Inspired by this, Pei Dan returned to China in May 2011 and co-founded Shanhaishu Technology with a domestic internet team and the Shanhaishu Real Estate Group, embarking on an entrepreneurial venture in the field of internet healthcare.

Shanhaishu Technologies boasts a robust team. CEO Chen Guanwei previously spent eight years at Xiaoxiong Online, a renowned IT portal, where he gained deep expertise in internet marketing. Since joining Shanhaishu in 2012, Chen has worked closely with physicians and healthcare institution administrators while leading his team to expand into hospitals. Through continuous learning and absorption of industry-specific knowledge, he has become an expert in the medical services sector, possessing a profound understanding of the needs and pain points of doctors and hospitals.

Chen Guanwei’s team is built entirely with an internet-centric mindset, with most members hailing from leading internet companies. Of the 40-plus team members, approximately 70% are technical personnel, and a dedicated medical team has also been established. As Doctor Tree continues to iterate, Shanhai Shu is accelerating efforts to further strengthen its ranks of technical, operational, and senior management talent.Three Years of B2B Experience in Doctor-Patient Relations: Shanhaishu Launches To-C Product “Doctor Tree”Doctor Tree’s B2C platform had already built a solid foundation before its launch in September 2014. Over the previous three to four years, Shanhai Shu’s Health e-Station health management system had served more than 40 Grade A tertiary hospitals and health management centers, accumulating vast amounts of data and extensive experience in doctor-patient communication.

Chen Guanwei revealed to VCBeat that Shanhai Shu had previously pursued a B2B strategy: selling remote health management systems to hospitals. Subsequently, through wearable device monitoring and two mobile applications, “Follow-up Assistant” and “My Doctor,” the company provided post-discharge services such as member management, data monitoring, doctor-patient communication, and private physician services to hospitals and health management centers. The hospitals were responsible for specific operational tasks, including account activation, physician assignment, and patient management.

Over the three years of practicing the B2B model, Chen Guanwei’s team has consistently held that the rich experience and data accumulated through Shanhai Tree’s post-discharge and post-consultation care model constitute its most distinguishing feature, setting it apart from light consultation platforms such as Chunyu Yisheng and Haodf Online, which primarily aim to resolve issues through online consultations.

In June 2014, after three years of dedicated development, Chen Guanwei recognized that the data and experience accumulated by Shanhaishu’s B-to-B products had reached maturity. He decided to launch Yishengshu (Doctor Tree), a C-to-C product, positioning it as a doctor-patient communication platform focused on post-discharge and post-consultation interactions built upon strong doctor-patient relationships, thereby helping physicians provide effective follow-up medical services. After Yishengshu 1.0 went live in September 2014, similar products flooded the market. While affirming the validity of his strategic direction, Chen viewed this competition positively, believing it signaled that China’s healthcare industry was moving in the right direction. Meanwhile, the doctor-patient communication data, product insights, and operational experience accumulated by Shanhaishu over its three years of development gave Chen full confidence in Yishengshu’s competitive advantage among peer products.

Over the past three years, Shanhai Shu has developed and successfully marketed an electronic medical record (EMR) management system, a health assessment system, and integrated dozens of smart wearable devices. These solutions are about to be offered free of charge to medical institutions and health management organizations via the Doctor Tree platform, to support post-discharge treatment and chronic disease management following health check-ups. This strategy aims to attract more online physicians to realize their professional value through the Doctor Tree APP, thereby giving Doctor Tree a significant first-mover advantage over its competitors.Doctor Tree’s Model Resembles WeChat, Focusing on the Concept of Strong Post-Discharge RelationshipsAlthough the online consultation model has gained widespread popularity, it remains constrained by insufficient communication between doctors and patients, let alone post-discharge management—a challenge that is even more pronounced for chronic diseases requiring long-term care. From the perspective of Shanhai Shu, which holds a deeper understanding of post-discharge management, follow-up visits represent the most effective means to address the prevalent issue of inadequate communication in internet-based healthcare, thereby better demonstrating its value.

Therefore, they have chosen a path that is fundamentally different from and runs counter to the conventional concepts of internet healthcare and lightweight consultations.

“Mere online inquiries and brief communications fail to generate any substantial data.” Chen Guanwei delivered this definitive verdict on the light-consultation model in an unequivocal tone. It is precisely for this reason that the Doctor Tree app, meticulously developed by Shanhai Shu, is essentially a health big data platform rather than an online doctor-patient communication channel. Their aim is to capture patient data after they leave the hospital, enabling physicians on the platform to make precise assessments and provide targeted assistance based on these data.

“Health records with case data are what guide our values.” This is how Chen Guanwei, with a background in internet marketing, and Pei Dan, with a background in big data analytics, emphasized to VCBeat the values that Shanhaishu holds dear.

When discussing the future roadmap of Doctor Tree, Chen Guanwei once again emphasized to VCBeat that “online consultations cannot resolve any medical issues; patients still need to see doctors in person.” With the support of case data, Doctor Tree aims to become a post-discharge platform for patient guidance, triage, and multidisciplinary consultation. While patients engage in online consultations, the platform will issue prompts for appointment registration and additional slot availability, thereby strategically directing high-quality patients to appropriate physicians and enabling patients to select top-tier doctors.

Chen Guanwei even used this vivid analogy to describe the relationship between pre-hospital and post-hospital care: pre-hospital care is akin to Weibo, representing a weak-tie connection; whereas post-hospital care more closely resembles WeChat, constituting a more stable strong-tie relationship. Enabling patients to become post-hospital care recipients through consultations, thereby providing comprehensive “after-sales medical services,” is precisely the type of relationship that Doctor Tree aims to establish.

During an interview with VCBeat, Chen Guanwei also revealed the roadmap for two upcoming versions of Doctor Tree.

The newly launched Doctor Tree 2.0 version will focus on building the concept of doctors as self-media. Doctors can publish medical knowledge to serve patients through their "Moments" in Doctor Tree, thereby assisting in patient triage.

Version 2.1 of Doctor Tree, currently under development, will place strong emphasis on fostering connections within the physician community and is scheduled to launch in three weeks. During the promotion of Doctor Tree, Chen Guanwei’s team discovered that a significant number of physicians from smaller hospitals were eager for learning opportunities, while colleagues within the same departments also sought platforms for mutual exchange and case consultations. This insight inspired Doctor Tree’s vision to create a platform facilitating professional medical exchange. Coincidentally, previous interviews conducted by VCBeat have also highlighted similar cases (Further reading:Medlinker Creates a Doctor-Exclusive Instagram + Quora)。

Yishengshu ProductsDoctor Shu Maintains a Non-Competitive Relationship with Hospitals, Helping Physicians Achieve Professional Responsibility, Reputation, and Financial GainIn his discussions with VCBeat, Chen Guanwei repeatedly emphasized the viewpoint that “light pre-consultation cannot resolve any practical issues.” When discussing the post-discharge doctor-patient relationship meticulously cultivated by Doctor Tree, Chen noted that although the entry point is relatively narrow, more precise patient adherence can be achieved through the services provided.

Chen Guanwei believes that by collecting patient data through DoctorTree’s case management system, health assessment system, and wearable devices, physicians can independently manage their patients on one hand, and better conduct follow-up tracking for serious and critical illnesses on the other. According to statistical data from DoctorTree, most patients share common issues in post-discharge care and medication adherence. With its accumulated data assets, DoctorTree possesses far greater experience in addressing these problems than various light-consultation platforms.

Chen Guanwei revealed to VCBeat Doctor Tree’s ambition to help doctors and hospitals achieve a win-win-win outcome in terms of responsibility, reputation, and financial gain. First, by defining physicians’ responsibilities through its product model, Doctor Tree enables doctors to better serve patients they have treated, thereby enhancing user experience while increasing patient engagement and follow-up care rates. Second, statistics show that up to 90% of post-treatment care occurs outside the hospital; Doctor Tree’s post-discharge model can better assist patients by improving follow-up compliance and boosting re-examination rates, which in turn helps hospitals strengthen patient loyalty. Third, doctors can also leverage Doctor Tree to provide post-discharge services, realizing their professional value and genuinely generating income through internet-based healthcare.

Based on these three points, Chen Guanwei believes that Doctor Tree does not compete with hospitals; rather, it can continuously help hospitals, departments, and physicians enhance their services and boost profitability.Doctor Tree Goes Beyond Post-Discharge Management, Incubating an E-Commerce PlatformAlthough DoctorTree, which had just secured $10 million in financing at the end of 2014, was not short of cash, Chen Guanwei revealed to VCBeat that the company still had a funding requirement of $20 million by mid-2015.

With nearly 10,000 physicians currently on its platform, Doctor Tree aims to reach 200,000 patients by the end of February. By July, its targets are 30,000 physicians and 2 million patients—a goal that will certainly require sustained cash flow support. More importantly, Doctor Tree plans to launch a pharmaceutical e-commerce platform in March.

When discussing this plan, Chen Guanwei put forward the view that “the real consumers of the healthcare industry are doctors.” He believes that by engaging doctors, patients will follow, and all internet healthcare platforms must address the challenge of how to engage doctors.

Guided by this perspective, Shanhaishu has decided to enter the pharmaceutical e-commerce sector, which is poised for fierce competition. Chen Guanwei predicted to VCBeat that before June 2015, more than 10 pharmaceutical e-commerce platforms would emerge, including those backed by Renhe Pharmaceutical. Pharmaceutical companies with ample resources and strong financial backing would dominate the market. In response, Shanhaishu aims to build its own competitive stronghold in pharmaceutical e-commerce before then, ultimately establishing a closed-loop “medical-pharmaceutical” service platform.

Their competitive edge lies in their current network of nearly 10,000 physicians covering more than 100 hospitals, as well as the products, data, and expertise accumulated over the past three years in post-discharge and post-consultation care. Shanhai Shu aims to leverage its existing platform advantages to build competitiveness in the pharmaceutical e-commerce sector. Through its next round of financing, the company seeks to harness capital strength to secure a dominant position during this critical phase of market expansion in pharmaceutical e-commerce.

VCBeat will continue to closely monitor Shanhai Shu.

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