Dear Readers:

As I am making my final preparations for our ISH 2022 Kyoto meeting, I cannot help but reflect over the last two years of my ISH presidency.

I took over as ISH President from Professor Alta Schutte in October 2022. A change of ISH Presidency usually occurs at the conclusion of the ISH Biennial Scientific Meeting. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our ISH meeting scheduled for 2020 was delayed until 2021; Professor Schutte and I had agreed to hold our Biennial General Meeting virtually to facilitate a timely change between our consecutive 2-year ISH presidential periods.

This meant that I did not have the opportunity to see my ISH colleagues in person at the start of my presidency – the ESH/ISH Joint Congress in Glasgow (11 – 14 April 2021) was held virtually.

The last two years have been challenging; primarily because of the obstacles presented by COVID-19 pandemic. My Executive Committee and I, like many others, quickly adapted to the new reality by arranging regular virtual meetings and liaising on important Society business through emails, Zoom meetings, and telephone calls. Despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, ISH has carried out a great deal of work.

You will remember that we have made significant changes to the way we recruit and make appointments to ISH leadership positions. The ISH New Blood Campaign introduced openings in the Society for talented, ambitious and dedicated people committed to the mission of the Society. Those recruited to the ISH leadership via the campaign have worked exceptionally well with more established members of the Society on many projects and I think that this mixture of new and familiar (i.e. enthusiasm and experience) is the right recipe for the governance structure of a well-functioning Society. ISH is proud to be inclusive – a high number of our ordinary members have a role in the Society’s leadership. Indeed, at the end of my presidency, we have a total of 140 active members within the ISH Executive, Council, Committees and Groupings. In the truly inspirational spirit that we nurture, they come from 55 different countries, with a better balanced (although not yet perfect) male-to-female ratio (58% to 42%).

One of the major changes that I am proud to see happening during my presidency is the transition of ISH from an unincorporated charity to a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) in the UK. Whilst this might not mean a lot to anyone who is less familiar with legal terms, the incorporation is a step forward to the better security of Society’s Trustees and its governance. This has not been a straightforward process and has required adoption of an updated version of our Constitution. This work has been led by the ISH Constitution Taskforce chaired by ISH Secretary (Professor Bryan Williams) and supported by our solicitors from Anthony Collins. The final draft of the adopted Constitution has been sent for approval by ISH members in early October and the outcome of the voting will be announced at our General Meeting in Kyoto on 15^th October. I very much hope that this process will help to put the Society on a secure footing in terms of the arrangement with the Charity Commission of England and Wales and provide the Trustees with the security that they need to operate in the years to come.

You may have heard of, read or actually been involved in our ISH Position Papers initiative. If not, please do not miss our ISH Position Paper session taking place at the ISH 2022 – Kyoto meeting (14^th October at 10:00 JST) dedicated to this new activity developed during my presidency. I would like to express my thanks to Professor Nadia Khan (Chair of ISH Research & Education Committee & Lead for Global Initiatives) and Professor George Stergiou (Lead for ISH Position Papers), who have been instrumental in developing the “production pipeline” for the ISH Position Papers. Two of these papers have already been published (Systematic Review and Consensus Statement on Bedtime Dosing of Antihypertensive Medications / International Society of Hypertension Position Paper on the Virtual Management of Hypertension: Lessons from the COVID 19 Pandemic) and have received their first citations. I am delighted to see how well they have been received by our partner Societies (e.g. WHL and ESH) and I am most grateful to them for the endorsements. The other two Position Papers are in the pipeline and I look forward to seeing these published by the end of the year.

Our invited contribution on addressing global disparities in blood pressure control to Cardiovascular Research is currently being proofed, and we should see this seminal paper in press later this year.  Other Society papers have been produced in collaboration with WHL, ESH and Coalition for Circulatory Health along with editorials and ISH Committee papers.  I very much hope that the collection of publications generated during my presidency will constitute an important part of our ISH library. Many thanks to Professor Tazeen Jafar (Lead for ISH College of Experts) for her support of ISH papers, via the ISH College of Experts. We particularly benefited from her advice and insight when it came to the selection of authors and referees. ISH College of Expert is a new structure within the Society and I very much hope that it will continue to attract the best possible experts in the world and support our papers, publications in the years to come.

I am very proud of our new collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). As per my message to the ISH membership, this collaboration will have its inauguration at the joint ISH-WHO session in Kyoto (13^th October at 10:00 JST)). ISH has a long tradition of working with WHO; you will remember that we partnered with WHO and published Guidelines for the Management of Hypertension in 1999. In 2003, ISH and WHO published a statement on management of hypertension. Our ambition is to achieve a non-State actor status with WHO in due course, and the next two years will be critical for the delivery of joint projects and initiatives to move us closer to this ambition. I am most grateful to Dr. Taskeen Khan (WHO Medical Officer) for facilitating this collaborative arrangement through the memorandum of understanding.

The new ISH website and the new membership portal database were another two important projects during my ISH presidency. The ISH website has been developed in WordPress by our website manager (Eva Bogner) and the ISH Communication Committee, chaired by Dr. Dylan Burger. Integrated with the website will be our new ISH member portal that took a few months to reach the format that we require – many thanks to the CJAM production team, who have been working hard to deliver this. We will shortly be in touch with all of you to ask you to update your ISH member profiles. This portal will be integrated with the payment system making it a seamless process for all of us pay our ISH membership fees. I strongly encourage you update your profile – the information on your expertise will be an important source of information to the ISH leadership when it comes to selection of contributors to our projects and initiatives.

I am proud of the Regional Advisory Groups (RAGs) and their local engagement and educational activities, as you will see in their reports at the General Meeting. I am most grateful to Professor Augustine Odili (Chair ISH Africa RAG) and his team for developing the African Hypertension School for Non-Physician Health Workers with the support of OMRON Academy. This has received a tremendous amount of interest and will help to build up the skilled hypertension workforce in Africa. I am also most grateful to Dr. Cesar Romero (Chair of Americas RAG) for strengthening the links between ISH and the national societies in South America and making the ISH RAG for Americas “the first point of contact” for both ISH members and non-members interested in hypertension. This is exactly in the spirit of what I imagine RAGs should do: be ISH’s eyes, ears, and voice when it comes to communication with national societies and regional organisations. I very much hope that over the next few years our network of RAGs will go from strength to strength. The Society is now in a much stronger financial position to support new local projects and initiatives – I am very grateful to Professor Fadi Charchar (ISH Treasurer) and the ISH Finance Committee for their hard work, dedication, and careful spending.

It is not possible to list the details of the brilliant work of all ISH Committees and Groupings here – you will see the scale of their delivery in the reports shared at our General Meeting in Kyoto. I am most grateful to the entire ISH Leadership for their outstanding level of commitment to the Society’s mission over the two years of my presidency. I am very grateful to Helen for her excellent support of the ISH Executive, Council and the entire leadership. Indeed, we all continue benefiting from her insight, input, and the work ethic. I am also very grateful to our ISH Corporate Members and partners and it has been a privilege to work with Presidents of ESH (Prof. Reinhold Kreutz) and WHL (Prof. Xin-Hua Zhang) and their teams. Indeed, we have a wonderful collegiate relationship having supported and having received support for many of the educational and research initiatives.

I have high expectations of ISH 2022 – Kyoto. Professor Hiroshi Itoh and the Local Organising Committee have prepared an outstanding scientific programme that can be enjoyed both virtually and through attendance in person. If you have not registered yet, please do so as soon as possible. Click here.

I look forward to seeing you all in Kyoto and, of course, to the new ISH Presidency that will commence on Sunday 16^th October 2022, at the conclusion of the ISH 2022 – Kyoto meeting.  I wish my successor, President-Elect Professor Bryan Williams, all the very best.

I am absolutely confident that the Society, under his leadership, will go from strength to strength!

Thank you to all of you that have been reading my blog, I very much hope that I have delivered some level of insight into the work of the Society and its many initiatives over the last two years.