Roger Green starts this interview with Jeff Lazarus by asking what Jeff has been focusing on since the Barcelona conference in May. Jeff discusses having worked extensively on developing and garnering support for a global consensus strategy on COVID-19, similar to his work last year and earlier this year on a global consensus statement on Fatty Liver disease. Like the Fatty Liver work, his COVID-19 consensus work included representatives from over 200 countries with an array of public, academic and not-for-profit portfolios. However, he suggests that the high levels of agreement and, sometimes, virtually unanimity evident in the Fatty Liver work was impossible to match on an issue as immediate and terrifying as COVID-19.

Roger then asks about the NAFLD Nomenclature Confurence Jeff attended in Chicago in July. Jeff describes the conference as a midway point for a Delphi process to explore the prospect of assigning a new name(s) in the description of fatty liver diseases. Should a name change occur, it needs to be organized through global consensus and consistent with the following 6 principles: A name change needs to be affirmative, accurate, adaptable, adoptable, applicable, and able.

Roger shares his belief, based on conversations with attendees, that the meeting was successful at strengthening consensus on this topic. They both agree on the challenges of organizing and establishing equitable, global consensus on such a mission.