Donald J. DiPette MD
School of Medicine professor and former Dean and Vice-President for Medical Affairs, Donald DiPette, M.D., FACP, FAHA. He as been a member of the program committee of the 29th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Hypertension held in May in New York.
At the meeting, he co-chaired a joint session of the American Society of Hypertension, the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of the American Heart Association, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, entitled “Global Blood Pressure Control Through a Shared Strategy: The Global Standardized Hypertension Treatment Project.”
The session represented leading scientists from all three major health organizations committed to combating the global hypertension epidemic. Panelists discussed the global project that aims to improve the treatment and control of hypertension, or high blood pressure, worldwide. The goal of the program is to achieve a target of reducing raised blood pressure worldwide by 25 percent by 2025.
An estimated 970 million people globally have hypertension and the disease is responsible for nine million deaths worldwide every year.
The global project is a collaboration between the CDC, the World Health Association represented initially by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and other regional and global stakeholders who have been working to identify a core set of medications appropriate to treat adults with hypertension. In addition, the project aims to identify cost-effective strategies for availability of medications and the delivery of care to patients.
DiPette previously served on the task force of the CDC and PAHO that identified a core set of medications to treat hypertension globally. Currently, the initiative is focused on Latin America and the Caribbean.
At USC, DiPette serves as a health sciences distinguished professor. He is board certified in internal medicine and clinical pharmacology and has a specialist certification in hypertension. He has also published more than 130 manuscripts in leading peer-reviewed clinical and basic science journals