Shanghai, China, 14 May 2021, RIC MedTech (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (“MicroPort® RIC”), a subsidiary of MicroPort® Scientific Corporation (“MicroPort®”) (00853.HK), has merged with Shanghai Shentai Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (“MicroPort® Shentai”) to create MicroPort® RehabTech Group. Professor Jiejiao ZHENG, Executive Vice President of the Shanghai Association of Rehabilitation Medicine and Director of Rehabilitation Medicine Department of Huadong Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, Professor Bin CAI, Deputy Head of the Sports Rehabilitation Group of the Chinese Society of Sports Medicine and Director of Rehabilitation Medicine Department of the Ninth People’s Hospital Affiliated to the Medical School of Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Professor Yi HONG, Director of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Center of Shanghai First Rehabilitation Hospital attended the inauguration ceremony, which was held on May 14, 2021 at the MicroPort® Scientific Corporation’s headquarters in Shanghai, China, to mark the occasion.
MicroPort® started to plan its rehabilitation business in 2017, with the aim of not only saving lives and curing diseases, but also helping patients to recover their body functions and return to normal life as soon as possible. MicroPort® established two subsidiaries for rehabilitation business, MicroPort® RIC and MicroPort® Shentai, in May 2018 and January 2019 respectively, which focus on muscle and bone rehabilitation, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and neurological rehabilitation. Thanks to nearly three years of R&D investment, MicroPort® has obtained nearly 100 patents in rehabilitation medicine and has several products already available for use on the market; numerous other rehabilitation products have entered the registration stage, with the aim of launching in the next two years.
Mr. Bo PENG, Chairperson of MicroPort®’s Greater China Executive Committee, Chief Marketing Officer, and Chairman of MicroPort RehabTech said, “MicroPort®’s new rehabilitation medicine business will put patients and doctors first. Under the integrated operation strategy of the Group, doctors will be provided with more high-quality rehabilitation medical solutions to help patients more effectively return to their everyday routines by combining clinical treatment technology with post-operative rehabilitation solutions.”
Unlike clinical medicine, which reverses the pathological process and helps to relieve patients’ pain through drugs, medical devices and surgery, rehabilitation medicine aims to partially or fully restore impaired functions through comprehensive rehabilitation assessment, treatment and training, allowing patients to resume a high quality of life. In this sense, clinical medicine and rehabilitation medicine are complementary to each other, and if organically combined, they can help patients recover better and faster.
Mr. Yi LUO, General Manager of MicroPort RehabTech Group, commented, “clinical medicine plus rehabilitation medicine, the application of smart IoT technology in rehabilitation medicine, home- and community-based rehabilitation, and the flourishing private rehabilitation market will be the four major trends in the development of China’s rehabilitation medicine. MicroPort® RehabTech Group will be service-oriented and fulfill the clinical needs and pain points. We will also take full advantage of our strengths in R&D, product quality, channels and brand, provide high-quality rehabilitation therapeutic solutions and services for the patients.”
At present, China is home to 85 million disabled people, 200 million elderly people and 290 million patients with chronic diseases, who are in urgent need of rehabilitation medicine. Driven by an aging population, the rising disability rate for patients with chronic diseases, growing demand for health-related products and services, and favorable national policies, rehabilitation medicine is likely to be the next big thing in the medical sector.