On the day he spoke with TechNode, Shuyuan Ling published a WeChat blog on targeted cancer therapy—why it centers on molecular targets, the treatments those targets have enabled, and why it is no cure-all.
Patients must understand unfamiliar terms before they can embrace innovations such as immunotherapy, CAR-T, and proton and heavy-ion therapy, Ling said. “If people think ‘target’ is just something doctors made up to fool them, how can they choose these innovations?”
“Healthcare inherently requires education,” he said. “If I do not do it, I cannot expect someone else to explain it for me.”
Health Literacy as Market Infrastructure
Shuyuan Ling is the founder and CEO of Shanghai Aijin Artificial Intelligence, a venture-backed medical-imaging company and a global supplier to Siemens Healthineers.
To give clinicians a clearer view of the brain, Aijin’s Diffusion Go converts CT and MRI scans into 3D maps of the cortex, neural pathways, blood vessels, and lesions. Its GoViewer platform lets clinicians navigate those maps for surgical planning, neuroscience research, drug development, brain-computer interfaces, and clinical validation.
Ling sees health communication as both a public service and a market-building tool. He uses a WeChat blog, guest teaching, and everyday examples to explain medical services, insurance, private hospitals, and health choices to non-specialists.
“The fewer misconceptions there are, the healthier the industry will be—and the more opportunities there will be,” Ling said. “You have to cultivate the soil first.”
Better-informed citizens can make safer healthcare choices, in his view, while investors can better understand how policy shifts are changing medical companies’ business models. The same knowledge can help customers navigate commercial insurance and private hospitals.
More Than a Zero-Sum Game
Ling characterizes the neuroscience and medical-innovation sector as less zero-sum than collectively market-building. Companies may compete where their products overlap, he said, but still share referrals to clinicians, investors, technical experts, and overseas opportunities.
“First, we need to make the pie bigger; then we can compete for slices,” Ling said.
He also connects that mindset to public-interest work. Ling said he has been helping a brain-computer-interface company promote community brain-health screenings in Shanghai’s Jiading and Luodian districts, including for Alzheimer’s and other neurological conditions.
He is also planning health book clubs, talks, and free consultations to counter misconceptions around dementia and encourage earlier attention to neurological health.
Why Product Comes Before Sales
Aijin is currently raising funds from government and foreign capital, Ling said, declining to disclose names or amounts because of non-disclosure agreement (NDAs). He said 70% to 80% of its revenue is reinvested in R&D, product development, clinical work, and regulatory registrations, with a smaller share for business development.
That allocation reflects Ling’s view of fundraising. “You raise money when you need it,” he said. “It’s a tool, not proof of a company’s development.”
He contrasted today’s more clinically and technology-driven environment with the relationship-driven sales culture that characterized China’s healthcare sector in the 1980s and 1990s, when commercial spending could open doors.
“Relationships are replicable. Technology isn’t,” he said. In his view, post-pandemic market pressure and tighter oversight have rewarded companies with defensible technology while leaving businesses reliant on distributor networks more vulnerable.
Cooperation Rules
Ling said Aijin obtained U.S. registration but could not gain a lasting foothold because data-related constraints prevented the transfer of core technologies.
He sees Europe as a possible next step, citing its scale, mature healthcare systems, and potentially more workable political climate. “A viable market needs economic scale, a sound healthcare system, and geopolitical predictability,” he said.
Asked about medical imaging in China and the U.S., Ling called the U.S. model more service-led and China’s more oriented toward research and drug development. The contrast underscores the market-building work China still faces: seeking overseas partners, working with domestic peers, and helping the public understand new technologies before they can scale.
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