-
President's
Message
Opening Ceremony of the 5th Scientific
Conference of the
Pan Arab Hypertension Society
Dear Friends, Colleagues and
Guests
Let me start by thanking Prof. Kheder and his Tunisian assistants
for inviting us to Tunisia, for their hospitality and for putting
together such a wonderful scientific program. This is my first
visit to Tunis and I would like to thank Adel again for giving
me this opportunity to see his beautiful country.
This is the fifth scientific conference of the Pan Arab Hypertension
Society. This conference is the most important scientific event
in the field of hypertension in this part of the world. Furthermore,
it represents the most important activity of our society. The
meeting fulfils many of the goals of the society, namely education,
encouragement of scientific research and establishment of human
relations between different Arab scientists and doctors. The
activities of our society, however, are less than our ambitions
and are inferior to our expectations. We need more involvement
of local Arab scientific and national organizations. We need
more contribution of the drug industry to our activities. We
need a visible representation in the international arena and
the world scientific community. We need to sponsor and find
ways to encourage scientific research among our young doctors.
We want to contribute to advancement of science and human civilization
as our Arab ancestors did hundreds of years ago.
Since we are not living in ivory towers, it is our massage
to disseminate information and knowledge not only to the medical
community but also to the Arab public and lay people. We should
find ways to guide, help and inform about healthy life style,
prevention of cardiovascular disease, detection and control
of hypertension in the community.
Research in the last decade clarified the important role of
dietary approach to stop hypertension, it underscored the significance
of global risk assessment in the management of hypertensive
patients and that blood pressure should not be taken in isolation.
Also, the value of new antihypertensive drugs in the prevention
of hypertensive complication and improving morbidity and mortality
have been established. More recently, it became clear
that these new agents may be superior to the older ones, however,
at the price of increased cost and possibly less compliance.
A number of guidelines national and international were developed
and updated in the last few years. I will share with you on
Saturday morning our experience in Egypt and I will outline
our new strategies for minimal and optimal care.
Our role as doctors, scientists and health providers is to
find ways to prevent and to reduce the cardiovascular epidemic
in the Arab world. This will be possibly our most challenging
assignment. During my presentation tomorrow, I will discuss
some of my thought in this area.
Dear Friends. There is no place on our planet for the lazy,
the ignorant and fatalistic people. Things do not move spontaneously.
Unless we take action, unless we take initiatives, unless we
accept challenge, we will not advance and we will stay in the
shadow as bystanders in the scientific world, playing no role
or maximally a marginal role in the development of science.
Let us work together to establish new standards for our Arab
doctors. Standards that will help in the advancement of science
in our area and provide better care for our patients.
Thank you and God bless you!
-
M.
Mohsen Ibrahim, MD
Prof.
of Cardiology- Cairo University
President of the Egyptian Hypertension Society
