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National Liver Conference to cover ‘tsunami’ of new data on liver disease

SAN ANTONIO — The National Liver Congress will convene October 25th, providing a broad scientific program and exhibit of products and services important for all practitioners involved in the care of patients with liver disease.

Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease spoke with Stephen A. Harrison, MD, meeting founder and co-sponsor from Pinnacle Clinical Research in San Antonio, Texas, about the compelling agenda comprising a mix of case-based panel discussions with audience question and answer interaction along with lectures from key opinion leaders.

“This is a one-day event that’s solely focused on education around important liver disease topics that are at the forefront of practitioners’ minds who see patients with liver disease,” Harrison said in an interview. “This meeting is not solely for hepatologists or gastroenterologists; it’s uniquely geared toward any provider who sees patients with liver disease, which includes all of primary care as well as specialists. It’s also unique in that physician extenders and nurses can benefit from the data presented.”

Harrison is the moderator of the first panel discussion focused on nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

“There’s so much happening in this field,” he said. “There’s a tsunami of new data coming out every few months on NASH. First, I’m going to spell it out in crayon and then it will be spelled out in hieroglyphics for those that need a little bit more of a challenge. We then transition to a ‘round-table’ type discussion where we use case-based format teaching, present a case, have it debated amongst a panel of experts in the field, and finally open discussion for the audience.”

The first lecture, “Continuum of Care of the Patient with Cirrhosis,” will be led by Bruce Runyon, MD, from the Loma Linda University Medical Center in California. Harrison highlighted Runyon’s 30 years of experience treating patients with liver disease, particularly alcohol-related liver disease and decompensated cirrhosis, and added that the audience should expect a “down-to-earth reality-based check” on how to manage these conditions.

The “Coagulation Disturbances in Cirrhosis” panel moderated by Jacqueline O’Leary, MD, from Southwestern UT, is a “hot topic,” according to Harrison, as patients with cirrhosis have a “paradoxical tendency” to have complications with clotting factors while also developing clots often. “This is a topic that has grown in the field and is debated more frequently than it used to be,” Harrison said.

The other lectures will be presented by Guadalupe Garcia-Tsao, MD, from the Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut, on portal hypertension, and by Reem Z. Sharaiha, MD, from Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, on endoscopic interventions for liver disease.

“Endoscopy is also a hot topic because there is a lot interest in the field of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease to encourage patients to lose weight,” Harrison said. “Endoscopy offers multiple strategies for this and I think the crowd will benefit from this talk.”

The other three panels will include discussions on autoimmune and cholestatic liver diseases, led by John M. Vierling, MD, from Baylor College of Medicine in Texas; the frontier of seeking a cure for hepatitis B, led by Norah A. Terrault, MD, from the University of California, San Francisco; and a debate regarding the best course of treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma given the increasing number of different therapeutic options, led by Amit Singal, MD, from the University of Texas Southwestern.

“The field of liver disease is dynamic, rapidly evolving, and rapidly changing,” Harrison emphasized. “If you manage patients with liver disease, this meeting is an outstanding opportunity to hear the latest and greatest so that you remain on the cutting edge of therapy to treat patients with this disease.”

Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease staff will report live from the meeting on October 25, 2019. Visit and follow @HealioGastro on Twitter for the latest news.