Cambridge-based techbio company Qureight has appointed Dr Claus Torp Jensen as its chairperson.

US-based Jensen brings has extensive and wide-ranging healthtech and IT sector experience. He is the chief innovation officer and executive vice-president of R&D and technology at Teladoc Health, a global provider of telemedicine and virtual healthcare. Jensen previously worked in technology, digital and IT leadership roles at CVS Health, IBM, Danske Bank, and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Qureight was founded in Cambridge in 2018, to improve the survival rates of patients with complex lung and heart disease through accelerating drug development in conditions such as Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and Pulmonary Hypertension, which currently have limited treatment options and poor survival rates.

Qureight’s cloud platform and AI technology analyse CT scans, blood biomarkers and clinical results from patients with a range of diseases. The technology creates models with both real-world and clinical trial data, so researchers can better understand how patients could respond to novel treatments.

Earlier this year, Qureight announced a multi-year strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca. which will allow AstraZeneca to use Qureight’s proprietary platform and AI technology to conduct research across a range of complex lung diseases.

Jensen said: “Accelerating clinical trials is a major need across all of healthcare. I was attracted to working with the Qureight team because of the way they combine sophisticated technology and clinical expertise to help drive such acceleration, while retaining the overall quality of the trials themselves. Solving this problem, and solving it well, is in high demand across the healthcare and life sciences sector.

“I look forward to collaborating with the senior leadership team and the other board members to accelerate Qureight’s growth over the months to come.”

Dr Muhunthan Thillai, co-founder and chief executive at Qureight, added: “Dr. Jensen is a world leader in healthcare data and infrastructure having held senior roles at IBM, and CVS Health prior to his current role as CIO at Teladoc Health.

“His deep understanding of the digital health landscape makes him an ideal chairperson of the board at Qureight, especially as we begin integrating data into our platform in real time from phase 2 clinical studies starting in the USA.

“We have several major industry partnerships underway and in the pipeline, and his guidance will be invaluable as we scale our platform.”