Dear patients, dear Colleagues,

With the spectre of the COVID-19 pandemic lurking in Switzerland and elsewhere, I take the opportunity of the World Hypertension Day (October 17th) and my new presidency of the Swiss Society of Hypertension (SSH) to address a few thoughts.

Detect – Control – Educate

As silent disease, patients with high blood pressure are often unaware of their condition. By simply measuring blood pressure, one of the most important risk factor for mortality and cardiovascular events can be detected. The SSH will continue to promote the detection of high blood pressure by participating to screening programs such as May Measurement Month (https://maymeasure.com) if sanitary measures permit such a program. Despite effective medical and non-medical therapy, control of hypertension remains desperately low (<50%). All our efforts and those of our nurse, pharmacist, dietician colleagues should aim at simplifying therapy by combining effective measures that have been shown to be effective in reducing blood pressure and its associated burden. In addition, we should use new technology as a help in the detection and the control of hypertension. These advances should however not be at the expense of costs and should be affordable for all our patients. Last but not least, education of our patients with adequate information on blood pressure measurement and control is perhaps the missing key to finally tackle hypertension and change our epidemiological statistics in Switzerland. The SSH is committed to continue its work to support detection-control-education programs has it has done in the past.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Grégoire Wuerzner

"Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay"
Simone de Beauvoir