Professor Cappuccio is the Cephalon Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine & Epidemiology in the Division of Health Sciences at WMS and Consultant Physician at the University Hospitals in Coventry. He is the Director of the European Hypertension Centre of excellence and Head of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Nutrition.

The British and Irish Hypertension Society is a highly-respected professional body which brings together doctors, scientists and allied health professionals in an effort to understand the causes of high blood pressure (hypertension) and improve its prevention, treatment and control. Together with the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) it developed national guidelines for hypertension, published in 2011 and implemented not only in the UK but taken as a guidance in many countries around the world.

High blood pressure (hypertension) affects nearly 20 million people in the UK and is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease (stroke, heart disease, kidney failure, vascular dementia).

Whilst the condition runs in families – suggesting important genetic determinants – modifiable socio-economic, lifestyle and environmental factors play a very important role in determining the continuous rise in its prevalence, facilitated also by the ageing of the population.

Professor Cappuccio said: “It is a great honour and privilege to be elected President of the British and Irish Hypertension Society. This society plays a key role in research and education into the causes of high blood pressure and the way health professionals and society as a whole can work together towards the final eradication of an almost entirely preventable condition.

"The advances in science and technology that we have at our disposal ought to be matched by a greater awareness and willingness to tackle modifiable socio-economic factors that underpin an as yet increasing burden of hypertension not only in developed societies, but more substantially in low- and middle-income countries. The society is making great leaps forward, at home and abroad, and it is an exciting time to take on this role”.