Hirotsugu Ueshima, MD

Born: 1943

Hirotsugu Ueshima is a leader among the second generation of pioneer Japanese cardiovascular disease (CVD) experts forwarding CVD epidemiology and prevention. He graduated from Kanazawa University School of Medicine in 1971. After training in clinical medicine, he worked in the Department of Cardiovascular Screening and Preventive Medicine in the Center for Disease Control in Osaka from 1972 to 1980 when it was led by Yoshio Komachi. He did postgraduate training with Stamler in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine at Northwestern and has maintained an active collaboration with the Chicago researchers.

In 1984, he joined the scientific staff in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the National Cardiovascular Center led by Teruo Omae where he directed Japanese components of the INTERSALT study, from which he launched independent population-based initiatives in Japan and elsewhere.

He headed the Department of Health Science at Shiga University of Medical Science from 1989, where he became the principal investigator from Japan for the INTERMAP study. He directs numerous multi-center studies including NIPPON DATA, and is now a lead investigator in a comparative study of subclinical atherosclerosis in Japan, Hawaii, Pittsburgh and Korea with Drs. Akira Sekikawa, Lewis Kuller, J. David Curb and Chol Shin, where the focus is on protective factors for CVD in Asian populations.

Ueshima is an active force in “Health Japan 21” and in public health goals for cardiovascular prevention in Japan. (HB)