<International Circulation>: At this last ASH Meeting where you are sitting as President， looking back over your tenure， what is the most important accomplishment you can cite to us as President of ASH?
　　Prof. Bakris: There is no single event; it is a compilation of events. There were a number of goals that I had when I took over the Society. The Society had been growing slowly in a number of ways and I thought that given the change in times， and given the changes in reimbursement and funding and changes in the direction of science and where hypertension was going globally as a discipline， we really needed to change a number of things. One of the things that we did was dramatically expand the educational mission of the Society. There is now patient portal education; so if you go to the website， there is patient education that is available. There are focused symposia internationally. We have joined together with a number of societies: the Chinese Society， the Indian Society， the Philippine Society and the Egyptian Society for instance. There has really been an international push in having ASH join with these groups to hold joint symposia around the world. This year we have twelve joint symposia at this meeting. That has grown dramatically. Last year we had eight; the year before it was five. We are reaching saturation at this point. That was a goal and it has been achieved. The other goal is to have online review mechanisms for people wanting to be Board certified in hypertension. That too has been achieved and we have an online module that can be done for a Board review. For members it is discounted; if you are a non-member， it is still available to you at a higher cost. That is going to be supplemented and expanded further and we have established Board review courses as well that go on around the country. The education committee has been very active under Dr Alan Gradman and it has really been a plus. We have the equivalent of MKSAP which is the mechanism that has been put up for hypertension review by the American College of Physicians. We now have that for hypertension; it is called HyperSAP. That includes multiple modules; it is not as detailed as the Board review classes. It only focuses on what is new and that will be published probably every other year and will be available in probably two months. I think probably the most important issue， other than administratively changing some things in terms of the job description of the President， is really the formation of a foundation. The ASH Foundation has a core group of nine people (which will expand substantially) and the focus of the Foundation is to raise funds for missions related to ASH， specifically funding of hypertension Fellows and specifically hypertension research. Number two is to help fund the patient-related missions of the Society; we have an outreach program that has been in existence for many years which is alive and well. It is funded largely by PepsiCo but we want non-pharma funding for a lot of these missions so the Foundation is going to be securing a host of things to ensure stability and growth of the Society in ways that a number of us have wanted to do in the past but haven’t been able to because of restrictions. Now the goal is to raise the funds over the next couple of years so we can do these things.

　　《国际循环》：这是您作为ASH主席的最后一次年会，回顾您任职期间，您认为作为ASH主席取得了哪些重要成就？
　　Bakris教授：任何事件都不是独立的，而是一系列的。我接手学会的时候制定了很多目标。在我任职期间，学会从多种方面得到了稳步的发展。我认为随着时代的变化、报销及基金的变化、科学方向的变化，高血压已经成为一个全球性的学科，我们亟需做出改变。首先，我们加强了学会的教育使命。目前已经设立了患者门户教育，患者只要上网就能接受教育。同时还有国际性的专题研讨会，与中国高血压学会、印度高血压学会、菲律宾高血压学会及埃及高血压学会等学会加强合作，使ASH与这些组织一道在世界各地联合举办专题研讨会。今年我们一共举行了12次这样的专题研讨会。这个数量增长是非常迅速的，去年我们举行了8次，前年举行了5次。从这个意义上说，我们的工作是令人满意的，达到了预期目标。另一个目标是建立高血压会员网上审查认证机制，这一目标业已实现，我们已经拥有了能够实现会员审查的在线模块。对会员是免费的，非会员则需要支付后才能应用，这个网上认证系统将不断完善并进一步扩展，同时，我们也开设了会员课程。由Alan Gradman博士领衔的教育委员会在其中发挥了积极的作用。我们目前已经拥有了美国医师学院的高血压审查机制——MKSAP相当的机制，我们称之为Hyper SAP。其包含多个模块，不像会员审查那样详细，主要是关注最新进展，以及每天可能公布的内容以及两个月内可能被应用的东西。我认为我所做的最重要的事情就是奠定基础。ASH基金会已经扩展至九人，主要宗旨是为ASH相关的任务募集资金，尤其是为高血压研究员募集高血压研究的经费，其次是为学会与患者相关的工作提供资金支持。我们多年来一直坚持有效的宣传计划，这一计划主要由PepsiCo资助，但是我们非制药性企业也能为期提供资金支持。因此，基金会有助于确保学会多方面的稳步增长。现在我们的目标是在未来几年内募集更多的资金，从而做更多的事情。

　　<International Circulation>: Following up on the joint symposia and specifically thinking about the China joint symposium， what is the end goal? Why did you decide to set up the joint symposia and what do you hope to gain in conducting those joint symposia?
　　Prof. Bakris: Hypertension is not one size fits all. There are different gene mixtures; there are different environmental factors; all of which predispose to the phenotype of hypertension. In having these joint symposia， we can better understand the influences of common things we already know about such as salt， the environment and air pollution for example， which certainly plays a role and in terms of China， Beijing is more polluted than many American cities. China has a large population and different regions have different exposure to a number of factors. Diets are different. What is the epidemiology of hypertension in China versus the US? How are they similar? How are they different? You might say why care because we aren’t living in China but we can learn about things over there over here. We know that eating a Chinese meal over here if you are seventy years old with hypertension could get you to explode due to salt content. I am sure the Chinese are sensitive to that as well. We can learn from each other in terms of common things being common.

　　《国际循环》：联合研讨会尤其是与中国的联合研讨会的终极目标是什么？教您建立联合研讨会的初衷是什么？您希望通过举行这些联合研讨会取得怎样的成果？
　　Bakris教授：高血压不能一刀切。它有不同的基因背景、不同的环境因素，这些均影响高血压的表型。通过举行联合研讨会我们能够更好地理解高盐、环境、空气污染等已知因素对高血压的影响。这些因素在中国高血压的发病中均起到了非常重要的作用，与美国的城市相比，北京的城市污染要更严重。同时，中国人口众多，不同民族暴露的因素有所不同，饮食也存在差异。与美国相比，中国高血压流行有何特点？有哪些相同及不同之处？关注这个问题主要是因为虽然我们不居住在中国，但是我们能够从中借鉴。我们知道70岁的高血压患者吃中餐可因饮食中盐含量过高而使血压急剧升高。我确信中国人对盐是敏感的。我们可以就共同的东西相互学习和借鉴。