Message from the Chair of the Regional Advisory Group (RAG) for the Americas – Cesar Romero

The presence of the ISH in the Americas region has sustainably increased during the past years, which was reflected in the ISH membership growth observed in the area. We hope the incoming ISH meeting in Cartagena 2024 will be an extra boost to increase representation from those countries in our society. 

The RAG for the Americas is working with several local societies to empower them, increase ISH presence in the region, and increase hypertension awareness, control, and research. 

The figure below shows the research productivity adjusted by the population of some countries in the Americas. You can observe the tremendous disparity in CVS research productivity, and ironically (or consequently), those countries with less research are with the more hypertension burden. One of the current ISH president’s objectives is to contribute to reverting this situation. 

Recently, President Bryan Williams and representatives of the RAG for the Americas were present at the annual meeting of the Argentinean Society of Hypertension. Our president gave two lectures, judged scientific work for young investigators, and was the assigned speaker for the closing lecture. 

We also have the opportunity to share time in advance organizational details of the 2024 meeting together with the president of the organizing committee of the 2024 Cartagena meeting, Dr. Dagnovar Aristizabal. The RAG for the Americas is planning to be present in some activities we are organizing with the Argentinean Cardiology Federation and the Brazilian Hypertension Society, which will take this summer (winter in LATAM). In association with the Argentinean Society of Hypertension, we recently commenced the second year of the certificate course of hypertension in Spanish, where more than 120 students all over LATAM are participating.

One more thing, the red arrows in the graph above show you two countries with the lowest CVS research productivity, and in line with this, our society has almost no members from those countries. 

I am pleased to announce that our RAG has incorporated the first two ISH representatives from Bolivia and Haiti into our RAG activities, and we are planning strategies to empower local scientific societies and bring more members from those countries. 

After two years of service, we renewed part of our RAG membership, and we wish to thank those outgoing members for their terrific contributions during the past two years. We welcome the new members of our RAG that will bring diversity, fresh ideas, and a renewed energy to face the incoming meeting in Cartagena. You can see an updated roster of our RAG on the ISH website.