President's Message

October 2012

Dear Members,

Health through science, care for carers

In taking the president's duty my first action is to acknowledge the contributions and dedication of all past presidens who played a key role in founding the Society. They were key in promoting its mission and advancing our knowledge regarding a women's health issue that has significant human implications, both acutely and long term, and furthermore, a dramatic economic burden. Special word of thanks goes out to my immediate predecessor Professor Sibia, who assisted and mentored me as a friend and a gentlemen. Next, I am taking the opportunity to congratulate Markus Mohaupt and Michel Boulvain and their teams for their hard work and dedication in organizing the 18th ISSHP World Meeting in Geneva. The meeting was a great success as evident by its attendance of over 550 participants from 53 countries as well as the quality of the scientific presentations.

There has been a passage to a new stage of the Society. From the age of the founders, of those pioneers who created this Society and decided to stay together in friendship to share good quality science on a very interesting topic, like hypertension in pregnancy is, to a new age. Prof. Sibai and myself may be considered the second generation of the Society. Those who learnt from the pioneers, who collected their teaching and the traditions. But the world around us has changed and we have to look around in a global perspective and find how to give support to others who are interested in the field, and also be open to the interest of the new generations.

The feeling is that it is time for the Society to expand its mission from pure basic science, which it has always emphasized, and to become active in developing policies to improve women's health. It is time now to show leadership with regard to guideline development that take into consideration the local resources for patients' care, and with regard to support patients'advocacy groups. We have to put our science at the service fo women's health: Health through science. We have to assist the world's clinicians. Not all countries of the globe have had a chance to define their own guidelines, nor they have a group of expert that can develop these.

ISSHP, as an International and "sovra-national" Society may help provide targeted guidelines for those who are not trained in taking care of this disease. In essence, we have to care for carers. A way to acknowledge the expertise of the many clinicians and scientists who, every day, work hard and who are on the front line is to issue an ISSHP "certificate of excellence". Such a formal recognition may be particularly beneficial for countries or settings where groups of clinicians and scientists need help in gaining visibility in their country.

With the precious contribution of the many scientists around the world, we may shed light on some gray areas, coming to consensus on topics like: 24h BP monitoring, short- and long-term follow up, recurrence, ant others. The issue of long term outcomes in a formerly preeclamptic woman is one of the most challenging. To date, we know that having had preeclampsia is a risk marker for many adverse health outcomes, especially cardiovascular and metabolic syndrome, but we don't know yet who to study, which tests to obtain, when and how to test, and what treatment to us. Nevertheless, this Society leds research on this area.

 Furthermore, we have to promote our Journal, increasing submissions, and improving the impact factor. This is what we all should be committed to achieve. Write good papers and submit them to the Journal, and cite articles from our Pregnancy Hypertension in your future research manuscript. Finally, our next world meeting will be held in New Orleans (October 2014) and will be led by Gabriella Pridijian and her team. Before that the North American Societ for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy will be held September 7-9th, 2012 at Kiawah Island just south of Charleston, South Carolina, While the Euro ISSHP 2013 will take place in beautiful Tromso, Norway (june 12-14, 2013).

We have big challenges ahead, but together we have an opportunity to achieve these goals. Thank you all for the contributions you will give and I look forward meeting you during one of the next meetings.

Yours

Andrea L. Tranquilli