United Imaging’s overt ambition to become the “King of Ultrasound”

United Imaging Healthcare is entering Mindray Medical's territory.

On November 12, United Imaging Healthcare announced that three color Doppler ultrasound diagnostic systems had been approved for market launch by the drug administration, namely uSONIQUE Pulse, uSONIQUE Genesis, and uSONIQUE Venus. These systems fully support use in multiple departments and scenarios such as whole body, cardiac, cardiology, and obstetrics.

With the approval and launch of the uSONIQUE series ultrasound products, United Imaging Healthcare has officially established a full-chain medical imaging diagnostic product matrix covering CT, MR, X-ray, MI, and ultrasound.

After completing the final piece of its medical imaging portfolio, United Imaging Healthcare and Mindray Medical will compete head-to-head in the ultrasound market.

In 2023, Mindray Medical ranked first in the domestic ultrasound equipment market, and has maintained its advantage to this day.

As a latecomer, the core advantage of United Imaging Healthcare's ultrasound products lies in intelligence, including automatic workflows that guide operators through standard procedures, intelligent image optimization for precise tissue recognition, automatic marking, and intelligent diagnosis.

With the launch of these multiple ultrasound products, United Imaging Healthcare is expected to challenge Mindray Medical's number one position.

Selling "Intelligence"

United Imaging Healthcare has been preparing for years to promote the development of its ultrasound product line.

Xue Min, Chairman of United Imaging Group, revealed that over ten years ago he was already planning for ultrasound products, but couldn’t find a suitable team during that period, so development was delayed until real R&D investment began in 2019.

"Over ten years ago when we first started, we also wanted to do ultrasound. In fact, I found a team in Silicon Valley and other places, but due to some unexpected twists, this team didn’t pan out, so our ultrasound product was never started until 2019 when we finally found the right team," Xue Min said. "From 2019, we organized a team to develop the ultrasound product."

The essential selling point of United Imaging Healthcare’s ultrasound product this time is "intelligence."

For example, all of United Imaging Healthcare’s ultrasound products will be equipped with AI large models and datasets at a scale of hundreds of millions.

According to Lin Feng, President of the Ultrasound Business Department at United Imaging Healthcare, the Solo LM ultrasound multi-modal large model is composed of language, visual, and audio models.

"To allow flexible deployment, we chose a medium-scale model with 7 billion tokens. After targeted training with ultrasound knowledge, its ultrasound performance rivals or even exceeds that of larger general-purpose models," Lin Feng stated.

Xin Feng observed on site that during an ultrasound probe examination, operators can interact with the built-in model in the device by voice until an automatic result is generated, which is then verified by the operator, potentially improving ultrasound physicians' efficiency.

AI-optimized workflows do address doctors' pain points to some extent. Industry insiders say that some hospital ultrasound doctors handle over a hundred patients a day, an extremely heavy workload. With AI assistance, ultrasound doctors may be relieved from heavy manual labor.

However, many current ultrasound products on the market are equipped with AI features. For example, Mindray Medical's Resona A20 offers AI tools like smart breast, smart thyroid, and automatic liver STE to simplify workflows and boost physician productivity.

On United Imaging Healthcare's unique ultrasound AI advantage, Board Secretary Cai Tao stated that embedding AI from the start of development can further improve processing speed and accuracy.

"Add-on AI is different from our approach, which has AI integrated from the get-go. Built-in AI can greatly improve the product’s processing speed and precision. So our product’s functions and pricing are easier for doctors and hospitals to accept," Cai Tao pointed out.

For core components, the ultrasound products continue United Imaging Healthcare's consistent R&D approach: a high localization rate.

"Currently, the localization rate of ultrasound product parts is quite high, though not yet 100%, but we're working toward it. Core components have already achieved 100% independent development," Lin Feng told Xin Feng.

United Imaging Healthcare's ultrasound products are advancing CE and FDA approvals in Europe and the US, expected to be approved as early as next year.

"We deployed our US R&D team long ago. The US is the top ultrasound market, and we are determined to enter," Lin Feng said.

Red Ocean Strategy

Ultrasound has broad applications in various hospitals due to its cost-effectiveness, ease of operation, and lack of radiation.

There is indeed vast market space.

According to Bai Jian Fang Lue Research, the global ultrasound diagnostic equipment market is expected to reach $13.911 billion USD by 2025 and $23.795 billion USD by 2032, with an average annual compound growth rate of 7.97% from 2025-2032.

But since ultrasound equipment has entered a mature stage, overall competition is intense and price wars are frequent. In March this year, Hebei Province centralized procurement of 79 sets of ultrasound equipment, with a total winning bid of 30.99 million RMB, nearly 70% less than the budget price.

United Imaging Healthcare is optimistic about this.

Cai Tao observed that currently centrally procured ultrasound equipment is focused in the mid-to-low end range, while high-end devices are basically unaffected.

"In centralized procurement, high-end devices are very rare, with the focus still on economic models," Cai Tao pointed out. "That’s why our first certified products are concentrated in the high-end range, which will be less affected by current centralized procurement. Of course, our highly competitive economic models will also be launched on the market as appropriate."

Cai Tao believes United Imaging Healthcare has two advantages: innovative high-end products driving gross margin improvement and large-scale production for cost reduction.

On one hand, United Imaging Healthcare plans to continue its "premium" strategy, driving gross margin improvements with innovation and high-end ultrasound products; on the other, besides factories in Wuhan, Changzhou, and Houston, a second-phase factory in Shanghai is set to be completed next year, which should help further control costs through large-scale production.

"There is a market trend toward higher-end CT and MR products. I believe ultrasound will follow this trend in the future," Cai Tao said. "So regarding the high end, we remain very competitive and are able to offset the future impact of gross margin erosion from mid- and low-end products."

Previously, the price war in CT and MR equipment did not affect United Imaging Healthcare, which focuses on the high-end market; its gross margin for the first three quarters of 2025 was 47.02%.

Although United Imaging Healthcare has not specified a market share target, its rapid launch of multiple ultrasound products clearly aims for the top spot.

In this competition, United Imaging Healthcare faces formidable rivals, not only foreign firms like GE Medical, but also another Chinese company, Mindray Medical.

Since 2023, Mindray Medical’s ultrasound products have overtaken foreign firms in domestic market share for the first time, rising to number one. The following year, its market share exceeded 30% for the first time, further solidifying its leading position.

In the first half of 2025, Mindray Medical’s ultra-high-end ultrasound series achieved nearly 400 million RMB in sales, almost reaching the full-year figure from last year.

Whether United Imaging Healthcare can claim the "Ultrasound King" title remains to be seen by the market.

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