In 2025, there were a total of 610 enterprises primarily engaged in rehabilitation assistive devices in Shanghai, a net increase of 70 from 2024, with continued vitality in the industry. By entity type, there were 557 suppliers, accounting for 91.3%, serving as the core of industrial development; and 53 service providers, with a steadily built supporting service system.

Growth of Industry Enterprises (Unit: Number)

The cultivation of high-quality enterprises in the industry has yielded remarkable results. By the end of 2025, the city had 138 high-tech enterprises in the field of rehabilitation assistive devices, accounting for 22.6%; 43 new high-tech enterprises were added in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 34.4%, with steady industrial upgrading. Meanwhile, there are 74 specialized and new ‘little giant’ SMEs and 8 specialized and new ‘little giant’ enterprises, forming a group of backbone enterprises with strong innovation and market competitiveness, becoming the core force to complement weaknesses and strengthen strengths.

Number and Proportion of Enterprises by Qualification

In 2025, the overall revenue of the city’s rehabilitation assistive devices industry exceeded 15.036 billion yuan, with an average annual compound growth rate of 16.6% over the past six years, demonstrating strong industry resilience.

Annual Total Main Business Revenue of the Industry

Revenue growth was mainly driven by suppliers, whose annual revenue reached 14.85 billion yuan, accounting for over 98% of the total industry revenue, serving as the core engine of scale expansion. Although the revenue base of service providers is low, their growth momentum is impressive, with a revenue of 186 million yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 34.8%. Market demand for supporting services such as leasing and fitting is accelerating.

From the enterprise revenue structure, the city’s rehabilitation assistive devices industry is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises: enterprises with annual revenue between 1 million and 5 million yuan account for 42.5%, those with revenue below 1 million yuan account for 23.3%, totaling over 65%; enterprises with revenue of 50 million yuan or more account for less than 8%. There is still significant room for improvement in cultivating leading enterprises and achieving large-scale development.

Distribution of Enterprise Main Business Revenue

Currently, the Shanghai rehabilitation assistive devices industry has formed a complete vocational and technical talent echelon. Among them, rehabilitation assistive technology consultants account for 38.1%, serving as the main force of technical services; the three types of positions—hearing aid dispensers, orthotic assemblers, and prosthetic assemblers—account for over 40% in total, laying a solid talent foundation for customized assistive device assembly and delivery.

At the same time, clinical health technicians such as physical therapists and occupational therapists account for only 5.6%, a low proportion, reflecting a relatively limited allocation of clinical rehabilitation professionals, indicating great potential for the integrated development of rehabilitation services and assistive device fitting.

Distribution of Types of Vocational and Technical Personnel in the Industry

The industry is currently in a rapid growth period, with significantly increased attention from the capital market. In 2025, a total of 22 rehabilitation assistive devices companies received financing, a several-fold increase compared to 5 in 2024, injecting sufficient capital into industrial expansion and technological iteration.

By the end of 2025, a total of 71 rehabilitation assistive devices enterprises in the city had entered various financing stages, with A-round and B-round enterprises accounting for nearly 40% in total, serving as the main force of financing and demonstrating strong growth momentum. The number of enterprises at C-round and later stages, as well as listed companies, is relatively small, and large-scale leading enterprises still need to be cultivated.

Number of Enterprises at Different Financing Stages

Innovation is the core driving force of industrial development. In 2025, the city’s rehabilitation assistive devices industry had a total of 13,527 patent applications and 10,246 authorized patents, with a patent authorization rate as high as 75.7%, yielding fruitful innovation results.

Cumulative Number of Patent Applications and Authorizations in the Industry (Recent Five Years)

Currently, Shanghai has established an integrated innovation system of industry, academia, research, and medical care, led by enterprises with collaboration between medicine and engineering and empowerment from academia and research. In 2025, among the top ten entities in effective patent holdings, medical institutions, universities, and high-quality enterprises led the way: medical institutions such as Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, and Ruijin Hospital demonstrated outstanding innovation capabilities; universities such as University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University solidified the foundation of technological R&D; local enterprises such as Fourier Intelligence, Jirui Medical, and United Imaging realized technology implementation and product transformation.

Ranking of Effective Patent Holdings in the Industry (Top Ten)

From the perspective of product innovation direction, patent layout is highly aligned with market demand: sports training assistive devices lead all categories with 2,303 patent groups; assistive devices for limb dysfunction, wheelchairs, and rehabilitation nursing beds follow closely, with the four categories each exceeding 1,500 patent groups, forming the first innovation tier. Respiratory assistive devices, monitoring equipment, and walking aids have patent numbers between 600 and 1,100 groups, forming the second tier. Overall, an innovation pattern has been formed with sports rehabilitation leading, living assistive devices as the foundation, and coordinated development of multiple categories.

Ranking of Patent Numbers by Assistive Device Product in the Industry (Top Ten)

In 2025, there were a total of 233 groups of patent licensing and assignment in Shanghai’s rehabilitation assistive devices field, a year-on-year increase of 21.4%, with continuously improving efficiency of technology achievement transformation. By category, personal medical assistive devices led significantly in patent transformation scale, ranking first in intra-city transfer, external inflow, and intra-city outflow, making it the core track of technology transformation; home and venue furniture adaptive parts became the main driver of external technology inflow, effectively empowering the local industry with external innovation achievements. Categories such as orthotics and prosthetics, mobility assistive devices, and self-care and protection assistive devices had balanced patent flow scales.

Number of Internal/External Patent Transfers by Category in Shanghai

Relying on a solid industrial foundation, a vibrant innovation atmosphere, and a comprehensive talent system, Shanghai’s rehabilitation assistive device industry is steadily moving towards a new stage of high-quality development. In the future, as leading enterprises grow, business integration deepens, and technology continues to break through, the industry will surely embrace broader development prospects.