In January 2026, uSurg DoctorX, the thoracic and abdominal endoscopic surgical system under United Imaging Healthcare (UIH), obtained its first registration approval from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), securing full regulatory eligibility for commercial launch. Half a year later, on July 30, the NMPA released information confirming the delivery of the revised medical device registration document for this product. This marks that following its initial approval, the endoscopic robotic system has undergone major technical iteration and functional upgrades, and successfully passed the full official review process once again, removing all regulatory barriers to large-scale clinical rollout going forward.
The product that obtained this second regulatory approval was registered with Wuhan United Imaging Minimally Invasive Medical Technology Co., Ltd. serving as the applicant. Guided by the core R&D philosophy of “Dual-power Excellence, Ecosystem Leadership”, this integrated robotic surgical platform is developed by United Imaging Healthcare for minimally invasive surgery with deep integration and intelligent coordination. It delivers industry-leading breakthroughs across three core dimensions: imaging performance, manipulation experience and intelligent ecosystem. The system connects underlying data links of all functional modules throughout the full surgical workflow to enable interconnection and data sharing across all procedures. It greatly reduces surgeons’ operational burden while markedly boosting surgical efficiency and manipulation precision. To date, the equipment has completed full-scenario clinical verification across multiple departments including hepatobiliary, urological, gastrointestinal, gynecological and thoracic surgery at many top-tier Class A tertiary hospitals nationwide, covering the vast majority of mainstream laparoscopic surgical procedures.
Wuhan United Imaging Minimally Invasive Medical Technology Co., Ltd., the operating entity of the uSurg DoctorX endoscopic surgical robot, and listed firm United Imaging Healthcare Co., Ltd. are both subsidiaries under the United Imaging Group ecosystem. As the listed platform of the Group, United Imaging Healthcare focuses its core business on medical imaging diagnostic equipment and radiotherapy devices, which together form the core revenue base of the listed company. In contrast, United Imaging Minimally Invasive Medical serves as the Group’s strategic dedicated arm for its surgical business segment. At present, the surgical robot business has not yet been injected into the listed company and represents an emerging business initiative at the group level.
United Imaging Healthcare’s years of accumulated high-end full-line medical imaging capabilities constitute an irreplicable core competitive moat for this endoscopic surgical robot within the industry. Leveraging its comprehensive technology reserves covering MR, CT, MI, RT and XR imaging modalities, the two entities have achieved profound technical synergy.
Previously, the percutaneous interventional surgical robot developed by United Imaging Minimally Invasive Medical took the lead in realizing real-time CT image guidance. The upgraded endoscopic robotic system in this launch is equipped with an AI multi-modal vision system featuring image fusion latency below 20 milliseconds, which fully meets the response requirements for real-time intraoperative manipulation. Meanwhile, drawing on United Imaging’s mature imaging equipment technology, the platform can construct precise multi-disciplinary digital twins before surgery and quantitatively visualize complete surgical plans.
United Imaging Group has now established a fully closed-loop full-stack technical chain known as the "Eye-Brain-Hand-Device" system. Imaging equipment serves as the "eyes" to accurately identify lesions; AI algorithms act as the "brain" to deliver intelligent decision-making; surgical robots function as the "hands" to perform precise manipulation. This ecosystem truly realizes the transformative leap from merely "visualizing lesions" to "treating lesions".
The surgical business layout of United Imaging Minimally Invasive Medical generates strong complementary effects with the existing businesses of listed United Imaging Healthcare, directly filling the critical gaps in the Group’s full industrial chain. The combination of the two arms extends the Group’s capabilities seamlessly from "precise lesion identification" to "precision lesion treatment", and significantly expands the scope of clinical departments covered by the Group’s product portfolio.
United Imaging Healthcare’s original business covers the full clinical workflow from disease prevention to diagnosis, with its product portfolio dominated by imaging equipment including CT, MR and PET systems, mainly deployed in radiology and nuclear medicine departments. In contrast, products developed by United Imaging Minimally Invasive Medical such as surgical robots, endoscopes and interventional devices address core clinical stages from surgery through rehabilitation, expanding application scenarios to multiple departments including general surgery, interventional radiology, orthopedics and neurosurgery.
United Imaging Group has officially announced the full completion of its layout under the brand "United Imaging Surgery", forming a critical closed-loop ecosystem covering the entire medical lifecycle of Prevention – Diagnosis – Treatment – Rehabilitation. The imaging strengths of United Imaging Healthcare lay a solid foundational base for preoperative diagnosis and intraoperative navigation, while surgical robots directly extend diagnostic capabilities to the therapeutic end, thereby building a complete industrial value chain.
In addition, the two parties share highly overlapping channel resources. United Imaging Healthcare’s imaging systems are deployed in nearly all top-tier tertiary hospitals across China and available in more than 100 countries and regions worldwide. These existing clients constitute the core target customer base for the endoscopic surgical robot, eliminating the need to build an entirely new customer network from scratch.
Faced with the upcoming nationwide centralized procurement program for endoscopic surgical robots, United Imaging Healthcare can directly leverage its well-established bidding system and years of channel management experience accumulated domestically, significantly cutting the deployment costs of its new surgical robotics business. Meanwhile, UIH recorded a 51.39% year-on-year increase in overseas revenue in 2025. Its rapidly expanding global sales channels will serve as a natural springboard for the surgical robot’s overseas expansion, enabling the new business to quickly penetrate international markets.
The domestic laparoscopic surgical robot track is currently undergoing rapid market expansion. More than ten enterprises across the industry have obtained product registration certificates, and nine brands have launched commercial operations, completely breaking the early market monopoly held solely by imported brands.In terms of the issuance progress of medical equipment allocation permits, nearly all of the country’s total 559 surgical robot allocation permits have been issued. Among them, the imported brand da Vinci has completed the installation of 169 units under its quota, while cumulative allocations for domestic brands have exceeded 130 units. Fewer than 80 allocation permits remain available for issuance. The shift in market share is unfolding far faster than the industry previously anticipated.
From the long-term development trend of the industry, according to publicly available forecast data, China’s overall surgical robot market size will reach RMB 70.952 billion by 2030. Among this, the laparoscopic surgical robot segment will exceed RMB 35 billion, emerging as one of the fastest-growing sub-sectors across the entire medical device industry. Driven by the continuous popularization of relevant products, it is projected that the vast majority of domestic tertiary hospitals will be equipped with laparoscopic robots by 2030, and the nationwide total installed base will jump to the scale of several thousand units.
From a policy perspective, thoracoabdominal endoscopic surgical systems have been officially included in the catalog of Class B large-scale medical equipment. Centralized procurement of such devices is being fully rolled out nationwide, and each provincial authority will successively launch volume-based centralized procurement programs in the follow-up stage. This will further accelerate the penetration of such high-end medical equipment into grassroots hospitals.
Overall, the second regulatory approval of the uSurg DoctorX system marks a landmark milestone in United Imaging Group’s strategic upgrade from a pure leader in medical imaging to an integrated medical platform covering both diagnosis and treatment.For listed United Imaging Healthcare, on one hand, its years of accumulated imaging technologies and AI algorithm capabilities deliver foundational support that competitors cannot match for the surgical robot product line. On the other hand, the surgical robotics business fills the Group’s previous business gap of only covering diagnostic segments without therapeutic solutions, enabling a full-chain medical ecosystem. This substantially boosts customer stickiness among top-tier hospitals as well as the company’s comprehensive competitive strength.
Although the surgical robot business is currently operated independently by United Imaging Minimally Invasive Medical at the group level and has not yet been incorporated into the listed entity, synergies in technology, sales channels and customer resources between the two sides will keep unlocking value over the long run. These synergies will bring considerable incremental value to United Imaging Healthcare’s core imaging business and propel the domestic laparoscopic robot track into a brand-new era of ecosystem-based competition.
