Surfing the MASH Tsunami

Send us Fan Mail This conversation starts with Chris Estes describing the processes he and his colleagues at the Center for Disease Analysis Foundation have used to build a disease model for NAFLD and NASH prevalence in 15 countries. Chris discusses some of the unique challenges that modeling NASH presents. Among other items, these include (a) spontaneous regression of disease; (b) "excess&qu...

Send us Fan Mail This conversation starts with Chris Estes describing the processes he and his colleagues at the Center for Disease Analysis Foundation have used to build a disease model for NAFLD and NASH prevalence in 15 countries. Chris discusses some of the unique challenges that modeling NASH presents. Among other items, these include (a) spontaneous regression of disease; (b) "excess&qu...

Send us Fan Mail In Episode 13, we explored ways that data modeling can inform a deeper understanding of the value of community and primary care VCTE screening for NAFLD and NASH. This week, we ask Chris Estes, lead modeler at the Center for Disease Analysis Foundation, what guidance data modeling can provide about diagnostic and drug development. The episode is a cross between a discussion and an...

Send us Fan Mail Last weekend, over 400 liver disease stakeholders gathered in Scottsdale, Arizona for the 2nd Annual Liver Connect Conference, sponsored by the Chronic Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF). The main meeting ran Friday and Saturday and was preceded on Thursday by a half-day session devoted exclusively to NASH (NASH Connect). Episode 15 and its conversations capture some of the thinking...

Send us Fan Mail Last weekend, over 400 liver disease stakeholders gathered in Scottsdale, Arizona for the 2nd Annual Liver Connect Conference, sponsored by the Chronic Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF). The main meeting ran Friday and Saturday and was preceded on Thursday by a half-day session devoted exclusively to NASH (NASH Connect). Episode 15 and its conversations capture some of the thinking...

Send us Fan Mail Last weekend, over 400 liver disease stakeholders gathered in Scottsdale, Arizona for the 2nd Annual Liver Connect Conference, sponsored by the Chronic Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF). The main meeting ran Friday and Saturday and was preceded on Thursday by a half-day session devoted exclusively to NASH (NASH Connect). Episode 15 and its conversations capture some of the thinking...

Send us Fan Mail Last weekend, over 400 liver disease stakeholders gathered in Scottsdale, Arizona for the 2nd Annual Liver Connect Conference, sponsored by the Chronic Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF). The main meeting ran Friday and Saturday and was preceded on Thursday by a half-day session devoted exclusively to NASH (NASH Connect). Episode 15 and its conversations capture some of the thinking...

Send us Fan Mail Last weekend, over 400 liver disease stakeholders gathered in Scottsdale, Arizona for the 2nd Annual Liver Connect Conference, sponsored by the Chronic Liver Disease Foundation. The main meeting ran Friday and Saturday and was preceded on Thursday by a half-day session devoted exclusively to NASH (NASH Connect). This two-part episode captures some of the thinking that went into th...

Send us Fan Mail The episode and this conversation is sponsored by HistoIndex. This specific conversation focuses on ways and AI-assistive technologies and analyses can improve our abilities to assess efficacy in drugs that treat advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis. For this extrasode, HistoIndex Chief Scientific Officer Dean Tai joins Quentin Anstee, Mazen Noureddin, Joern Schattenberg and Roger Gree...

Send us Fan Mail One major discussion at NASH-TAG this year was about the inconsistency in ballooned hepatocyte identification and how this inconsistency inflates screen fail rates and possibly placebo response across studies. This conversation is part of a thorough exploration of this issue. This conversation starts with Roger Green wrapping up the earlier discussion of the relationship between h...

Send us Fan Mail One major discussion at NASH-TAG this year was about the inconsistency in ballooned hepatocyte identification and how this inconsistency inflates screen fail rates and possibly placebo response across studies. This conversation is part of a thorough exploration of this issue. This conversation starts with Roger Green asking Stephen Harrison how clinical trial analysis might change...

Send us Fan Mail One major discussion at NASH-TAG this year was about the inconsistency in ballooned hepatocyte identification and how this inconsistency inflates screen fail rates and possibly placebo response across studies. This conversation is part of a thorough exploration of this issue. It starts with Mazen Noureddin raising two questions about the entire subject of ballooned hepatocyte scor...

Send us Fan Mail One major discussion at NASH-TAG this year was about the inconsistency in ballooned hepatocyte identification and how this inconsistency inflates screen fail rates and possibly placebo response across studies. This conversation explores that issue in detail. It begins with Quentin Anstee eloquently laying out the challenge that led to this study and the approach it took. The chall...

Send us Fan Mail One major discussion at NASH-TAG this year was about the inconsistency in ballooned hepatocyte identification and how this inconsistency inflates screen fail rates and possibly placebo response across studies. This episode explores that issue in detail. The episode is sponsored by HistoIndex. At the back of the episode is a discussion of how artificial intelligence driven assistiv...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 13 looks at the NICE Draft Guidance Evaluating FibroScan use in Community and Primary Care settings. This conversation focuses on underlying tensions between a methodology designed to assess big-ticket spending on critical moments of disease and a population screening approach that centers on wellness care more than illness care. This conversation starts with Roger Green n...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 13 looks at the NICE Draft Guidance Evaluating FibroScan use in Community and Primary Care settings. This conversation focuses on the real impact of a decision not to compensate at this time, with most discussion centering in some form around the idea that a positive NAFLD screen leads to what Chris Estes of the Center for Disease Analysis Foundation describes as a "C...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 13 looks at the NICE Draft Guidance Evaluating FibroScan use in Community and Primary Care settings. This conversation focuses on some of the data issues surrounding this evaluation, ranging from the lack of the long-term data necessary to make the wellness case to narrower, more case-specific flaws in how costing data was developed.  The previous conversation looks at how...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 13 looks at the NICE Draft Guidance Evaluating FibroScan use in Community and Primary Care settings. This conversation focuses on the basic way that NICE approaches issues like this one and tensions between that approach and the health and wellness outcomes this kind of screening might provide. As Roger Green mentions when starting this conversation, Surfing the NASH Tsuna...

Send us Fan Mail The UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issues health economics-based decisions on whether therapies and diagnostics should be reimbursed by the British government. In a recent draft guidance titled FibroScan for assessing liver fibrosis and cirrhosis outside secondary and specialist care, NICE has stated that "there is not enough certainty for...

Send us Fan Mail Throughout this podcast, panelists uncovered a large set of actions that might improve NASH care for those Black Americans who have the disease while suggesting a range of solutions, some more realistic or faster to achieve than others. In this conversation, each panelist is asked to mention one thing they believe might actually improve within the next year. A few focus on 3-5 yea...

Send us Fan Mail With so many major clinical trials for Fatty Liver drugs recruiting over the next couple of years, we have an opportunity to study effects on Black Americans from inception, instead of assuming these drugs work the same in different racial groups only to find, some years later, that we were wrong. This conversation explores historical reasons for underrepresentation and shares pos...

Send us Fan Mail Factors that make treating NASH and NAFLD a unique challenge for non-Hispanic Black Americans range from Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) to omics suggesting that the disease in Black Americans may be different than in Caucasians or a range of behavioral elements (for example, smoking) that are more closely associated with Black Americans. This conversation begins with Stephen...

Send us Fan Mail How do you discuss a disease with no history during Black History month? Surfing the NASH Tsunami asked, "What challenges exist for non-Hispanic Black Americans in the areas of NAFLD and NASH, given how low incidence is?" In this conversation, a corporate executive, not-for-profit patient champion and academic researcher discuss some of the reasons it is so important to...

Send us Fan Mail In recognition of Black History Month, SurfingNASH looks at how the impact of NASH on non-Hispanic Black Americans differs from other groups. The episode includes Key Opinion Leaders not only in Fatty Liver disease but also, more broadly, social determinants of health like food insufficiency and clinical trial participation. This episode was originally suggested by Dr. Yani Adere,...

Send us Fan Mail This wrap-up conversation of our NAIL-NIT episode provides greater detail on NAIL-NIT's research plan. The plan itself includes two elements: a retrospective analysis of data collected to date by drug developers in their own clinical development programs and a six-year prospective study currently estimated to include 1,000 - 1,300 patients, with major adverse liver outcomes (...