Special Interview with the Founder of Hypertension Cardiovascular Outcome Prevention and Evidence in Asia（HOPE Asia） Network - Prof. Kazuomi Kario

Hypertension is the most common chronic disease impacting over half the adult population. “Digital hypertension” is a new information and communication technology (ICT)-based research field of digital healthcare that adds significant value to the management of hypertension by integrating multidimensional and time-series data. On March 15, 2022, the Editorial Office of Connected Health (CH) is pleased to interview Prof. Kazuomi Kario, who made plenty of progress in digital hypertension and published the Review Article entitled “State-of-the-art rapid review of the current landscape of digital hypertension” on our journal. In this interview, Prof. Kario illustrates the significance of digital hypertension and the limitations and advantages of blood pressure telemonitoring for managing patients with arterial hypertension. In addition, we are deeply impressed by Prof. Kario's motivation and missions to found the Hypertension Cardiovascular Outcome Prevention and Evidence in Asia (HOPE Asia Network). The main reason why he conducted that is Asian countries urgently need consensus guidelines like Western countries to gather the advanced experience, evidence, and study of famous experts about hypertension to provide some guidance for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

Interview

Q1: What is meant for “digital hypertension,” and what adds to the traditional approach to managing arterial hypertension?

Q2: Blood pressure telemonitoring is the most popular application of “digital hypertension.” Which are the main advantages and limitations of this tool for managing patients with arterial hypertension?

Q3: Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly popular in medicine. How can artificial intelligence be helpful for doctors and beneficial for hypertensive patients?

Q4: We found that you founded the Hypertension Cardiovascular Outcome Prevention and Evidence in Asia (HOPE Asia Network) in 2018. Could you please share with us what motivated you to conduct that?

Personal Introduction

Prof. Kazuomi Kario founded the Hypertension Cardiovascular Outcome Prevention and Evidence in Asia (HOPE Asia Network)” in 2018.
Prof. Kazuomi Kario graduated from Jichi Medical School in 1986. He is currently Professor and Chairman of Cardiovascular Medicine, Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, Japan. Prof. Kario and his team were the first to demonstrate “morning surge” in blood pressure (BP) as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (Kario et al. Circulation 2003), and first used “morning hypertension” with the definition of morning BP ≥135/85 mmHg, regardless of clinic BP. He is the principal investigator of the Japan Morning Surge-Home Blood Pressure (J-HOP), Japan Ambulatory BP Monitoring (JAMP), ICT-based HI-JAMP. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of Curr Hypertens Rev and Hypertens Res. He is also an Editorial Board Member of >15 international journals, including Hypertension, J Hypertens, and J Clin Hypertens. Professor Kario has published more than 800 academic papers.

CH will continue to publish more special interview series. We look forward to building a multi-channel exchange and display platform for all scholars who publish papers with us.

Respectfully Submitted by the Journal Editorial Office
Connected Health