Dr Pickering’s practice is focused on hypertension and cardiovascular disease. There are four basic questions to ask in every patient: How high is the blood pressure? Why is it high? What is the risk? How should it be treated? Although these questions seem straightforward, they are often not so easy to answer.

Blood pressure is very variable, and a single high reading taken while sitting on a doctor’s exam table does not mean that the pressure needs to be treated; readings taken by doctors are often very unrepresentative of a patient’s blood pressure at other times. Great attention is placed on obtaining blood pressure measurements out of the office, both by home (self) monitoring and 24 hour ambulatory monitoring.

In most patients we cannot identify a single cause for the high blood pressure (so called essential hypertension), but we screen for lifestyle factors (being overweight, an unhealthy diet, stress etc) and for the rare “curable” causes of hypertension such as adrenal gland tumors or narrowed arteries to the kidneys. Dr Pickering works closely with Dr Clemow, who assesses and treats sources of stress in patients with hypertension and related conditions.

The decision to treat the high blood pressure depends not only on the blood pressure numbers, but also on the presence or absence of other risk factors such as diabetes and high cholesterol. Treatment focuses on both lifestyle changes (diet, stress management, and exercise) and the judicious use of medications, which are chosen to fit each individual patient’s profile.

Patients are encouraged to play an active role in the treatment of their condition.

Dr. Lynn Clemow is a Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years of experience working in academic medical settings with people living with chronic illnesses and stress-related disorders. She graduated from Smith College and did her doctoral work in the Clinical Health Psychology program at Louisiana State University. She has been part of Dr. Pickering’s research and clinical team for approximately 5 years and moved with the group to Columbia University in September, 2003 to form the Behavioral Cardiovascular Health and Hypertension Program. She has done research on the effects of stress management techniques on patients with hypertension, heart disease, and cancer, and currently is conducting a study funded by NIH to examine the effects of a stress and anger management group in the workplace on high blood pressure. She and her health psychology trainees are available to see BCHHP patients as part of their routine medical care to assist with problems including: Lifestyle change affecting cardiac risk factors (including smoking, exercise, diet), and stress-related problems such as anxiety, depression, or stress-related physical symptoms.

Dr. Ogedegbe completed his internal medicine residency training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, from where he went on to complete a Health Services Research and Clinical Epidemiology Fellowship at Cornell University Medical College. He joined the faculty at Cornell for two years before moving to Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Medicine. His clinical practice is within the Behavioral Cardiovascular Health & Hypertension Program at Columbia University Medical Center. His clinical practice focus is on preventive cardiovascular health, primary care and hypertension. Dr. Ogedegbe sees patients with chronic diseases regardless of the specialty. As a primary care physician, clinician-investigator and clinical epidemiologist, Dr. Ogedegbe’s area of interest is the application of health behavior models to minority patients with chronic diseases, with a special interest in issues of medication adherence among hypertensive African Americans.

Dr. Daichi Shimbo completed his Internal Medicine training at the Mount Sinai Hospital & School of Medicine in New York City. After his Chief Residency, he stayed at Mount Sinai to complete a cardiology fellowship. Dr. Shimbo devoted the first two years of his training in research studying the complex biological and molecular mechanisms underlying atherosclerosis. He received the Department of Medicine Outstanding Research Award for his research into thrombosis and inflammation. The remainder of his training was devoted to clinical cardiology, and he gained expertise in coronary intensive care, cardiac catheterization, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, outpatient cardiology, electrophysiology study, and cardiothoracic surgery. Presently, Dr. Shimbo holds faculty appointments in the Divisions of General Medicine and Cardiology in the Department of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and is an integral member of the Behavioral Cardiovascular Health and Hypertension Program. Dr. Shimbo has an interest in cardiac imaging using ultrasonography, and sees patients in the Echocardiography Laboratory at the Flanzer Cardiac Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital.