E-Bulletin
Introduction from the ISH Secretary and President-Elect
This month brought us very sad news for cardiovascular medicine and hypertension as we lost two invaluable colleagues – Professor George Bakris and Professor Henry Black. Both served as presidents of the American Society of Hypertension, and both had remarkable scientific recognition and global impact. George Bakris was active until his last days, with an extraordinary research contribution (>1,000 PubMed publications, 165 h-index; 250,000 citations). He was a wonderful person and friend to many of us in his homeland Greece, as well as to numerous others all around the world. His work and vision will follow us and will continue to help us in shaping the future of hypertension management.
At ISH, June has been super busy as we are preparing for our 2024 congress in Cartagena, Colombia. We have secured a large number of international experts who will participate, and we are close to having an almost final scientific program. Join us to discuss the challenges faced in hypertension management in different parts of the world, and the emerging therapeutical and technological tools which we are currently considering applying in the near future.
These days we are starting a refreshment plan of the ISH leadership team for my presidency term starting at the end of September. Council election electronic voting system will shortly open for active ISH Members (only) to vote to fill up to 5 available places. We received 10 nominations from around the world, and all are strong candidates! I am looking forward to getting all of them on board, as Council members or within other ISH committees and groups, to work together in further expanding the activities and impact of the ISH.
I also announced a call this week to ISH members and friends to get actively involved in the work of the ISH, as I wish to enrich the ISH working teams. Any of you who is willing to commit time and energy to several ISH roles (committees, boards, ongoing and new projects) please submit an expression of interest form.
The ISH awards and lectures session is one of the highlights of the ISH Scientific Meetings. We recently received an impressive list of nominations which will be reviewed soon by the ISH Awards Committee and the awards will be delivered in September in Cartagena. We also put a call for new applications from our members with a major and productive interest in hypertension to be elected as ISH Fellows (ISHFs) – also to be announced in Cartagena.
This week the European Society of Hypertension published its 2024 Clinical Practice Guidelines which are now available open access. This concise statement (14 pages including 6 tables and 10 figures) has been endorsed by the ISH and presents a novel “MASTERplan” for the management of hypertension. It will be a valuable guide for primary care doctors in Europe and will facilitate the dissemination of the core recommendations for the management in hypertension into clinical practice.
Read on below for several other important updates from the ISH New Investigator Committee, the ISH Membership Committee, the ISH Women in Hypertension Research Committee, and the ISH Mentorship and Training Committee, and several announcements by our affiliated societies!
Enjoy reading!
George Stergiou
ISH Secretary and President-Elect
Athens, Greece