【Profile】

Ding Jianwen, Chairman and General Manager of Aiwei Technology Co., Ltd., Changsha Class B talent, focuses on the research and industrialization of clinical medical testing equipment, in vitro diagnostic reagents, and medical consumables. He has led his team to create many key and common technologies, including "artificial intelligence machine vision technology" and "automated medical microscopy morphological testing," filling many gaps in international and domestic technologies.

How do hospital laboratories quickly produce results for hundreds or thousands of specimens every day? In the past, each urine sample required doctors to individually adjust the microscope, adjust the light, and observe with the naked eye. Now, test results are available immediately. This breakthrough is closely related to one doctor—Ding Jianwen, Chairman and General Manager of Aiwei Technology Co., Ltd.

On February 22, when the reporter met Ding Jianwen at Aiwei Technology Park, he was discussing product development challenges with members of the R&D team.

"Aiwei Technology only does one thing: realizing automated microscopy, allowing the public to enjoy modern medical services, making it as convenient as self-examination and brushing teeth." Looking back on his 23 years of entrepreneurial journey, Ding Jianwen was filled with emotion. This mature, wise, insightful industry leader, and revolutionary of traditional microscopy technology, is leading the industry in a new direction, ending the history of urine testing completely relying on manual labor, and pioneering automated microscopy.

Dream Building

A Barefoot Doctor's "AI Testing Dream"

"It all happened naturally; I didn't initially plan to start a business." Said Ding Jianwen, 66, founder of Aiwei Technology. In 1973, after graduating from high school at 16, Ding Jianwen became a returned youth intellectual, following a local senior traditional Chinese medicine practitioner and becoming a barefoot doctor, as assigned by the brigade. In 1977, the college entrance examination was reinstated, and Ding Jianwen was admitted to the Hunan Medical School's Medical Testing major.

After graduation, Ding Jianwen worked in the laboratory of the Fourth Hospital of Changsha for more than 20 years. "At that time, blood tests could rely on some semi-automatic instruments and equipment, but urine tests and the like could only be handled by doctors using cumbersome methods such as manual microscopy." Ding Jianwen vividly remembers the pain points of manual testing back then: on the one hand, the efficiency was low, and the workload was high; on the other hand, the test results were entirely dependent on individual skill.

Gradually, Ding Jianwen began to explore the idea of automated and intelligent testing, bringing together professors and researchers specializing in automation, image analysis, and precision optical mechanics. At that time, this entrepreneurial team was the earliest and most luxurious "medical-engineering combination." When hope takes wing, it can soar.

Ding Jianwen, with his keen industry insight, discovered opportunities at work. In 2001, the team launched an original research project on "machine vision technology for automated morphological testing using medical microscopes" and achieved technological application and transformation in urine sediment microscopy. This "technology of tomorrow" faced the challenges of no standards to refer to and no samples to learn from. From scratch to recognition, the team's journey has been one of overcoming obstacles, steadily moving forward.

Ding Jianwen introduced that in 2002, Aiwei Technology successfully developed the first-generation intelligent and automated urine sediment microscopy product, "AVE-761 Urine Sediment Intelligent Analyzer." In 2003, the product passed the scientific and technological achievement appraisal and its technology was at the leading domestic level and among the top international products. The initial team founders stated that that time was both difficult and hard, but also very happy, "In the years after the successful development, the company's annual income and profits were basically reinvested in R&D and product improvement, ultimately leading to very mature technology and products."

Ding Jianwen jokingly said that his entrepreneurial journey was "fate," with many coincidences leading to its beginning. The most incredible thing was that through a small recruitment advertisement in a newspaper and a free recruitment broadcast on a radio station, he found two graduate students as his earliest entrepreneurial "partners." More than 20 years later, these two are now senior executives at Aiwei Technology.

On June 16, 2021, Aiwei Technology was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, becoming a listed company on the A-share market, further strengthening the company's development engine. Regarding development plans, Ding Jianwen stated: "Aiwei Technology will actively participate in the construction of New Hunan, connecting the company's development with national and local development, and building Aiwei Technology into a respected domestic and international benchmark enterprise in the R&D, manufacturing, and medical health services of high-performance medical devices."

Chasing Dreams

Firmly Seated as the Top in Urine Microscopy

Starting from scratch. Time turns back to August 2002. The AVE-761 Urine Sediment Intelligent Analyzer developed by Aiwei Technology was successfully launched, the first urine sediment analyzer in the country to obtain a registration certificate. It can automatically collect images under a microscope and automatically identify and count red and white blood cells in urine, assisting in manual microscopy.

However, research and development is only the first step; the biggest challenge for the instrument came from clinical trials and clinical recognition. At Aiwei Technology, a human-machine battle was launched. Experts from Beijing Union Medical College Hospital and other places gathered together to conduct a comparative verification of the instrument, showing that compared with manual microscopy, the results from the AVE-761 instrument were more accurate, more stable, and faster. "Artificial intelligence machine vision microscopy has significantly improved medical testing work. The greatest significance of the instrument is that it solves the real-world problems of large workload, unstable results, and inaccurate results in hospital testing, achieving automation, standardization, and normalization of urine microscopy testing."

After more than 20 years of R&D accumulation, Aiwei Technology's core technology has continuously moved towards higher-end and more intelligent levels, and has expanded the application of key core technologies to multiple specimen testing fields such as feces, blood, gynecological secretions, and body fluids, occupying a leading position in similar international technologies. Unlike international companies that usually use flow cytometry, Aiwei Technology uses morphological examination methods to allow "automatic microscopic detection."

Aiwei Technology has a vivid description of its technology and products: "Intelligent medical microscope analyzers use intelligent control systems to replace manual operation, machine vision technology to replace human eyes, and image recognition and analysis technology to replace the human brain, achieving automatic sample preparation, automatic classification and identification of formed elements, and automatic output of test reports."

Currently, Aiwei Technology's urine testing instruments are used in nearly 6,000 secondary and above hospitals nationwide, with a market share of over 40% for its main products and ranking first among similar products in the industry. It is a leading enterprise among domestic brands.

Realizing Dreams

Concerned about Primary Medical Care and the Health of the People

Ding Jianwen is fond of Tai Chi, embodying both strength and softness. Ding Jianwen's life rhythm is like practicing Tai Chi, understanding the principles of "movement" and "stillness." In his spare time, Ding Jianwen also contemplates the issue of "slow and fast": "Don't run so fast that you forget why you started."

For a long time, Aiwei Technology has concentrated its main resources on maintaining its technological advantages, improving product quality, and maintaining its competitive edge, but it faces a certain risk of product homogeneity. "This may be a choice the company made. Before, we were slower and more stable, hoping to make better technology and products, and to make the company's production and operation more stable. In the future, we will expand our product categories and deepen our supporting services." said Ding Jianwen.

Authoritative data shows that the domestic market size of testing instruments and related reagents and consumables for urine, feces, blood, body fluids, and gynecological secretions in China is expected to exceed 20 billion yuan, and the market for household medical equipment exceeds 100 billion yuan. Facing this huge blue ocean market, the medical testing field has great potential.

From his studies and work to founding Aiwei Technology, Ding Jianwen has always been rooted in Changsha. Ding Jianwen said, "Changsha has undergone earth-shaking changes in the past 40 years. I have been fortunate to witness the construction and development of the entire city of Changsha, and also the improvement of living standards since the reform and opening up. Now, my life in the Xiangjiang New Area is very good. We have a good working and living environment. I want to thank the Xiangjiang New Area, and thank the Party and the country."

Ding Jianwen's entrepreneurial history is also the development history of Hunan Xiangjiang New Area (Changsha High-tech Zone), and the two complement each other brilliantly. Ding Jianwen told reporters that in 2000, when he and his entrepreneurial team started their business by renting a few dozen square meters of residential house, there were few large-scale enterprises and industries in the park, and the biopharmaceutical industry was just starting. Today, Aiwei Technology has grown from small to large, from weak to strong, and has built an industrial base covering 62 mu with a total construction area of over 50,000 square meters. The new area's biopharmaceutical industry has become one of the park's pillar industries, and the total number and revenue of enterprises have also achieved rapid development.

"I position myself as always pursuing 'tomorrow's technology,' always thinking about how to make better products, and how to make products that contribute to medicine and humanity." Ding Jianwen believes that working in the medical industry is the best choice, and staying in Changsha and settling in the new area is the best decision. He also firmly believes that in the near future, self-body examination will be as simple as brushing teeth, which is also his lifelong pursuit.