00:00:00 – Surf’s Up: Season 5 Episode 19
During EASL Congress 2024, Roger Green, who was back home in Pennsylvania, conducted interviews with Mike Betel, Louise Campbell (twice) and Sven Francque from Milano. These interviews focused on the major MASLD themes and presentations at the event.
00:00:00 – Surf’s Up: Season 5 Episode 19
00:04:14 – Conversation with Mike Betel begins
00:15:23 – First conversation with Louise Campbell begins
00:19:53 – Novo Nordisk Symposium –managing cardio metabolic disease through the liver
00:26:29 – Building momentum and energy
00:33:05 – Second conversation with Louise begins
00:36:12 – CPG session and guidelines – implications
00:44:07 – Thoughts about medications
00:46:09 – Thoughts about devices
00:51:48 – Conversation with Sven begins
01:06:42 – Question of the Week
01:07:13 – Business Report
00:04:14 – Conversation with Mike Betel begins
On Wednesday, the first afternoon of the meeting, Mike Betel joined Roger from the convention center.
The first part of the conversation centered on the Patient Advocate session that Mike chaired with Shira Zelber-Sagi. The session’s goal was to discuss barriers to addressing unmet needs in a clinical setting and explore potential solutions. Mike’s key takeaway: patients around the world are having challenges getting personal attention and time from their treaters.
The rest of this interview touched briefly on other sessions Mike attended.
00:15:23 – First conversation with Louise Campbell
Roger’s first interview with Louise took place at the end of Thursday. She started by describing the “really nice vibe” of the meeting, dampened by the fact that Stephen Harrison was not there, and is no longer with us.
The first session Louise chose to discuss was the previous day’s Patient Advocate session. To her, the key point was to learn a key question that every provider should share with every patient once a year.
She briefly mentioned the one presentation from the day’s General Session she was able to attend: a retrospective analysis of the predictive value of VCTE.
00:19:53 – Philosophically important presentations
Next, Louise discussed two sessions she attended that delivered powerful, somewhat novel messages. The first was a symposium sponsored by Novo Nordisk that looked at using the liver “to manage cardiometabolic side” through the liver “rather than focusing on liver disease.” The second was the “Healthy Livers, Healthy Lives” presentation that presented “very startling figures” about healthcare costs and lack of productivity in the US and how and why India has targeted this disease aggressively.
00:26:29 – Building momentum and energy around AI and data development
Louise and Roger both observed that momentum is building in MASLD and mentioned why they believe this is happening,
00:33:05 – Second conversation with Louise begins
Two days later, Louise and Roger conducted a second conversation. The major focus was Louise’s enthusiasm: the new Clinical Practice Guidelines and their practical implications.
00:36:12 – CPG session implications
Louise described this session as having “blown her mind” with its forward-thinking style and recommendations. Her favorite point? The guidelines mentioned resmetirom even before it was approved in Europe.
00:44:07 – Thoughts about medications
Roger suggested that this aligned broadly with the various drug presentations in the Late Breaker and General sessions. Collectively, those presentations highlighted an array of drugs with different modes of action and strengths across the metabolic continuum.
00:46:09 – Thoughts about devices
Roger asked whether Louise believes that over time, the diagnostic focus would shift from liver stiffness and CAP to in-office PDFF. Louise suggested that in a world where clinical trials may not require biopsy, it might be difficult to obtain sufficient data.
00:51:48 – Conversation with Sven begins
This conversation, which took place 90 minutes after the final gavel, started with Sven praising the “vibrant hepatology community” evident at the meeting.
From there, the discussion covered the Clinical Practice Guidelines, major drug development presentations and other categories. The conversation is fairly short, but packed with information and insight.
01:06:42 – Question of the Week
01:07:13 – Business Report