Itecho Health appoints Sir David Haslam as chair of the board

Itecho Health, a dynamic Leeds-based Medtech company created to develop digital health applications to support the treatment and management of long-term health conditions, is pleased to announce the appointment of Sir David Haslam as the Chair of the Board.

Sir David brings a wealth of experience to the role. He is a past chair of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), former president and past chairman of the Council for the Royal College of General Practitioners, past president of the British Medical Association and a former vice-chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. He is the current chair of the Trustee Board for Young Lives vs Cancer. In addition, he is a Fellow of the Royal College of GPs, the Academy of Medical Educators, the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal College of Physicians.

In addition, he has written 14 books on health topics, delivered keynote speeches in conferences in 33 countries and in 2014 was named by the Sunday Times as one of the 500 most influential and inspirational people in the UK. He was awarded CBE in 2004 for services to Medicine and Healthcare, knighted in 2018 for services to NHS Leadership, and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by the University of Birmingham and the University of East Anglia.

Dr Adrian Brown, founder and CEO of Itecho Health said of the appointment “We are delighted that Sir David has chosen to join us on our mission. His leadership, vision and healthcare expertise both here and globally will be of huge benefit to us as we continue to drive the health innovation agenda forward – an area which is much talked about but still needs to be truly delivered. Itecho Health’s Ascelus platform supports both the prevention and treatment of long-term conditions. It has been developed with both patients and clinicians, and Sir David’s guidance and his personal advocacy for services to be patient-centric will help us build on the foundations that we’ve built here and overseas and truly unlock the power of digitisation in healthcare.”

In response to his appointment, Sir David commented “I’m really honoured to be joining Adrian and the team. This is an exciting time for the company and there has never been a more important time to support brilliant innovative companies to change the way healthcare is delivered. When I wrote my book Side Effects in 2022, I set down how I believed that our healthcare system had lost its way and how I believed that we can fix it. It’s time for companies such as Itecho to be supported as part of that solution and I can’t wait to get started”.

Itecho is based at Nexus, the University of Leeds’ innovation Hub, and already works with a significant number of organisations in the UK including (but not limited to) the University of Leeds, Leeds Teaching Hospital HHS Foundation Trust, the University of Sheffield, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, University of Bristol and patient focused charities including Myeloma UK, The Sickle Cell Society and Leukaemia Care. In addition to expanding its reach across the UK, Itecho is also actively exploring expansion to other markets including the US.