Dr. Hinohara proposed the importance of home blood pressure management and convinced the world of its evidence.

Today, preventive medicine and behavioral science are widely accepted, but this was not the case a half century ago, when a doctor began advocating these concepts. The late Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, then the director of St. Luke’s International Hospital was a pioneer in home blood pressure monitoring and worked tirelessly to persuade people to accept these new concepts.

Dr. Hinohara delivered a groundbreaking lecture entitled “The Clinical Significance of Home Blood Pressure Monitoring” at the 16th Annual Congress of the Japanese Society of Psychosomatic Medicine in 1975. Dr. Hinohara reported that blood pressure measurements vary considerably depending on where measurement took place, individual lifestyle factors and other conditions. He also pointed out that blood pressure measurements at home tended to be lower than readings at a doctor’s office. Dr. Hinohara cautioned against making conclusions about a patient’s blood pressure when relying solely on blood pressure readings taken only while the patient is hospitalized or visiting a doctor. He devoted many years to raise awareness of the importance of monitoring blood pressure at home and delivered many lectures to spread the word. Dr. Hinohara also engaged in researching blood pressure monitors that would allow anyone to measure blood pressure easily at home.

Dr. Hinohara’s desire to contribute to better health by popularizing home blood pressure monitoring resonated with OMRON Healthcare.

The cooperation led to the establishment of the Study Group for Physiology and Management of Blood Pressure in 1988. The objective was to provide a forum where the latest insights and research findings on blood pressure management could be easily shared. With this, the study group aimed to equip medical professionals and researchers with the knowledge and ability to take on prominent roles in educating the medical community and the public about the importance and ease of home blood pressure monitoring. This study group remains very active, especially in promoting further important research results. Its influence was felt even in the Japanese Society of Hypertension, which published Guidelines for the Management of Hypertension in 2014 that included the recommendation to prioritize home blood pressure data over office readings in making diagnoses.

Themes of the study group

1. Clinical physiology of BP

2. Techniques of BP measurement

3. Lifestyle and BP values

4. Epidemiology of hypertension

5. Diagnosis of hypertension

6. Hypertension and self-management