S2-E49.2 – Clinical Care Pathway: Behavior Change and Prevalence Data

S2-E49.2 - Clinical Care Pathway: Behavior Change and Prevalence Data
Last author and leading endocrinology Fatty Liver Opinion Leader Ken Cusi joins co-author Stephen Harrison, Louise Campbell and Roger Green to discuss the recent Clinical Care Pathway published in Gastroenterology. This conversation centers on two issues: driving behavior change and recognizing the scope of the need.
For “Clinical Care Pathway for the Risk Stratification and Management of Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease” to achieve its goals, clinicians need to be motivated to action and then understand what to do and why. This conversation discusses different philosophical and behavior economics motivators. Ken Cusi stated his excitement based on the belief that once a clinician starts to screen and sees one seemingly healthy patient with cirrhosis, he will treat differently. Roger Green pointed out three small items in the first paragraph of the paper that seem designed to say, “This is serious. Pay attention!” Finally, Ken and Stephen Harrison discuss their previous work in assessing prevalence, which demonstrated that disease is far more widespread than most people (clinicians and patients alike) believe and over the past 10 years, we may be seeing a dramatic increase in the number of seemingly healthy people with severe NASH.