Innovation

The innovation solution aims to address three key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

1) Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure: Chengdu Huanya Huakang Medical Examination Center developed infrastructure for mobile physical health examinations on buses. The firm's CEO discovered that those factories and companies are reluctant to go to the hospital for a physical check-up because if any employee tests positive, the entire company must be shut down and isolated. Therefore, the CEO purchased 20 buses, removed the interiors, and installed the entire set of equipment on the bus, allowing himself to go to the manufacturer and conduct a physical assessment; as a result of this innovation, they were able to quadruple their profit during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

2) Goal 3: Improved Health and Well-Being: Since the service attitude of Chinese hospitals is not very good and there is a lack of patients, the CEOs hired all the professionals who offer better service at a lower price. Thus, the customers can receive a better service at a lower price, which contributes to the health and well-being sustainable goals of corporate employees, as well as people of lower income groups.

3) Reduced inequalities (SDG10): Chengdu Huanya Huakang Medical Examination Center is providing access to physical examinations to people with lower income levels.

Inspiration

The inspiration for the innovation came from seeing ongoing challenges faced by the customers for the health examination. The challenges included time, availability, access, and safety, which are the bases of the innovation of mobile physical health examination centers. The social entrepreneurship of the CEO focused on developing a solution to eliminate ongoing social issues allowing the organization to develop unique solutions. For example, the CEO mentioned, "The on-site body examination means our company doesn’t need to have examination centers all over the place, we can expand our company’s business faster and cheaper."

The leadership of the CEO not only focuses on generating profits, but also focuses on developing a cost-effective solution to provide health examination facilities to lower income group individuals. For example, the CEO mentioned, "We also offer free examinations to low-income populations, even though it does cost me a lot, but we helped a lot of people with our capacity." Through this, the business not only ensures convenience to the user and faster service of physical health examination, but it also allows people with lower income to get access to health checkup facilities by improving the utilization of the available resources to develop a cost-effective solution.

Overall impact

The short term effect of this innovation in physical health examinations means that there is easier access and the competition in the industry is larger. That being said, the on-site physical examination means their company does not need to have examination centers all over the place, but rather they can expand their company’s business faster with a greater profit margin. Furthermore, with reduced prices on examinations, they have offered free physical health examinations for individuals in a lower-income bracket, such as sanitation workers and homeless individuals.

Many public hospitals have showed a desire to secure physical health exam buses for their own use. Thus, there must be market demand for the product, and, therefore, the public hospitals have felt pressure and want to be a part of it. The free examinations for low income populations will be a benefit to society, since these people may not have been able to afford such an exam, before. In the future, it can be expected that health will improve due to the ease and relatively low cost of a physical health examination.

Business benefit

There are several benefits of this business, which include improved infrastructure and revenue growth. Fuqiang Lu, the manager, convinced the CEO to invest in this industry, and he built up the whole comprehensive health team by himself. The company can effectively generate a 25% growth in revenue annually. In the long run, the company has customers' resources which could at least generate 10 million in revenue each year.

The government may publish a new law that requires all the employees of industries where they are exposed to toxic materials to do a medical examination every year, which will encourage a higher level of innovation. There will be a higher level of employment due to higher industry demand which requires an improved supply of service, which can be developed by an improved level of resources and employees. The high demand of consumers will increase the number of businesses in the industry, which may also intensify the market competition and lower the prices of physical check-ups.

Social and environmental benefit

Beyond the economic impact, there will be a social impact for the business. For example, the reduced prices of physical examinations and free physical examinations for groups of lower income individuals will improve the health and well-being of the Chinese population. It will improve the access for people working in the sanitation industry or homeless people. Furthermore, the employee’s health and wellness will be improved by regular check-ups that will promote a higher level of productivity and growth.

Interview

Chen Peng, CEO