S5 - E22.2 - Healthy Livers, Healthy Lives: "Political Will" In MASLD Public Policy

Surfing the MASH Tsunami

Healthy Livers, Healthy Lives Chair Jeff Lazarus joins Jörn Schattenberg, Louise Campbell and Roger Green to discuss why political will is so important in overcoming inertia and obstruction in global MASLD public health policy.
Louise notes that she left NHS because of obstruction against earlier stage efforts to promote liver health and asks how to achieve these goals. To Jeff, it all depends on political will. He provides an example from viral hepatitis to prove his point.
Roger asks how to motivate primary care practitioners who are overloaded with tasks they need to complete during short, overly scheduled patient visits.
Jeff notes this is a challenge today, with a solution that lies in education that not only teaches about the disease but also stresses the cost of inaction. To Jeff, teaching FIB-4 to primary care and automating the algorithm to make it available in every electronic patient record is the minimum we should strive for today.
Jörn focuses on the cost of inaction from a different direction: physicians who are afraid they will demoralize patients when they diagnose a disease with no available treatment. Jeff responds, "Do we not raise awareness because we don't have out-of-the-box solutions?" He goes on to describe different types of solution that might work for a patient, ranging from digital apps to linking patients to social agencies that can provide support and services. Jeff notes that "the field will need to change as we find more patients," due to increased demand on public health systems and social agencies.