Airfinity is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Henrik Sillesen, MD, DMSc as the company’s first Chief Medical Officer to drive further growth and innovation within our work within pre-emptive health.
Henrik is an internationally recognised leader in cardiovascular disease and a pioneer in the pre-emptive space. He joins us from the Novo Nordisk Foundation where he held the position of Medical Director of Clinical Science. Until 2021, he led the department of vascular surgery at Rigshospitalet for 23 years.
Henrik Sillesen served as President of the European Society for Vascular Surgery (ESVS) from 2018-9, served as secretary general for ESVS in 2004-9, was the president of the Danish Heart Foundation across 2004-8, the President of the World Federation of Vascular Specialties 2009-10 and the President of the Danish Vascular Society from 2002-4. In addition, Henrik has authored hundreds of scientific papers, lectured in 35 countries and co-authored Guidelines for the European Society for Vascular Surgery and European Society for Cardiology.
Professor Henrik Sillesen says, "Airfinity has proven to be a strong player in predicting important outcomes in health and how this can be affected by pre-emptive medicine and treatments, exactly what has been a major component in my professional life as a clinician, scientist, and leader in healthcare. I’m excited to take on this new role to help further strengthen the medical and scientific rigour of Airfinity’s analytical capabilities and modelling.
“Cardiovascular diseases are the biggest global killer, with more than 20 million people dying annually and more than half a billion people around the world living with chronic disease. A paradox really, since cardiovascular diseases are the most preventable and treatable conditions.
“With today’s rapid increase in life expectancy, many more people will live with these diseases, and new ways of managing and treating them which adapt to an individual’s needs are needed. Airfinity is perfectly positioned to contribute and accelerate this development of new drugs and precision medicine with better data. I want to work to help leaders across healthcare make better informed decisions that will improve patients’ lives”.
Airfinity’s CEO and founder Rasmus Bech Hansen says, “Henrik has been a critical advisor to Airfinity as we have grown and I am thrilled to have him join us full time as Chief Medical Officer. The combination of aging populations, increasing pressure on hospital systems around the world and a new generation of medicine and diagnostics that allow for earlier risk detection and intervention, means that the time for a pre-emptive transformation of Western health systems is urgent and possible. Data and predictive analytics is key to successful pre-emptive strategies and I am grateful that Dr Sillesen has agreed to join us full time to lead this effort."
As a global leader in disease forecasting, Airfinity works across infectious disease and cardio-metabolic - both areas where pre-emption is core to better outcomes. Airfinity uses structured time series data sets and advanced analytics to support the world’s leading pharmaceutical developers leverage diverse data sources to track, predict and simulate population-level disease outcomes.