Raising Awareness of PSC to Healthcare Professionals
BASL Meeting 17th to 20th September 2019
Chair of Trustees (Martine) and Programme Development Officer (Maxine) talked about PSC and engaged with healthcare professionals and researchers this week at the annual British Liver Transplant Group (BLTG) and British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL) meeting in Glasgow.
We were delighted to be joined by Gareth Weeks for one of the days. Many of you may recognise him. He is a member of our Expert Panel and has recorded a video about taking part in research.
Martine is the patient representative for the steering committee for the British Liver Transplant Group (BLTG). Some of the BLTG activities, in particular a new project to improve services for patients before and after liver transplantation have been instigated and driven by PSC Support and dedicated hepatologists. It is important that liver transplantation patients are provided with the right support in terms of weight management, diet, fitness and wellbeing before and after transplantation.
Maxine spoke about evidence for the routine use of machine perfusion in liver transplantation and debated its introduction into routine liver transplantation care.
Work commenced for a completely new medical guideline for Liver Transplantation. PSC Support is representing patients in the guideline development group to ensure the guideline covers the issues important to patients. PSC is now the second most common indication for liver transplantation despite being rare.
Dr Kate Lynch (nee Williamson) won an award for best overall study poster. The poster described the study part-funded by PSC Support using fine-needle aspiration to look at individual cells (among other things).
Dr Simon Rushbrook delivered a scientific update on PSC to attendees, covering his views on endpoints in clinical trials (a subject close to our hearts and a hot topic in PSC) and emerging research trends.
Dr Michael Heneghan talked about pregnancy after liver transplantation. Given the relatively young age of people who have had a liver transplant for PSC, this is an important topic. We are delighted that Dr Heneghan has accepted our invitation to talk to patients about this at our next Information Day in London.
Dr James Ferguson showed attendees the latest transplant statistics. The system for allocating organs for liver transplant changed in March 2018 and is being monitored closely to ensure there are no unintended consequences.
Dr Emma Culver, PSC and IgG4-related disease expert, shared the latest understanding and clinical care management tips to healthcare professionals.
We were proud to see members of PSC Support's Expert Panel delivering key talks at this meeting. Overall, this was an excellent meeting which gave us the opportunity to engage with nurses, doctors and researchers to raise much-needed awareness of PSC.