S3-E24.2 - Controversy at the Innovations in NAFLD Care Conference: What Does Patient Empowerment Mean in Fatty Liver Disease?
On May 6 and 7, over 100 NAFLD stakeholders convened in Barcelona and on-line for the inaugural Innovations in NAFLD Care 2022 conference (#INCBCN.) Surfing the NASH Tsunami was there, with Jörn Schattenberg serving as event co-founder and Louise Campbell and Roger Green moderating sessions. This week's episode is less a formal recap of the meeting than recollections of key moments and messages from the co-founders and Surfers.
While the question in this conversation comes from Roger Green, who asks about controversies, the two pivotal controversies center around views of patient empowerment. The conversation begins where the last one ended, which Louise Campbell and Roger Green commenting that calling the entire disease class simply "Fatty Liver Disease," as proposed by Primary Care participant @Jean Mareis, would remove a controversial issue and foster stronger communication between doctor and patient. In response, Jeff Lazarus and Jörn Schattenberg note that there is an ongoing delphi exercise led by Jeff and his team, which will report on July 8 and 9. From here, the discussion around controversy shifts focus to the varying reactions to #HumanEdge founder Marcus Ranney's presenting about #biohacking and his developmental Mito app. Questions ranged from how much data to put in patients' hands to where analysis should be controlled. This element wraps up with Jörn Schattenberg noting the research value of the data that Human Edge proposes to collect. The last part of this conversation covers plans for the 2023 conference and congratulates Jeff as he departs.