The British Association for the Study of the Liver is a multi-disciplinary society with around 900 members composed of interested individuals from clinical medicine, clinical and basic research and allied professions.
The British Association for the Study of the Liver aims to disseminate research findings and clinical expertise, to promote opportunities for collaboration in liver research, to provide a voice that can advise and interact with the media and advises policymakers.
Dr Ian Rowe winner of the Andy Burroughs Young Investigator Award 2016 pictured with Chair of the BLTG Professor Darius Mirza.
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Dr Matthew Armstrong winner of the Dame Sheila Sherlock Award 2016 pictured with the BASL Secretary Dr David Patch.
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Dr Alexander Gimson winner of a BASL Distinguished Service Award in 2016 pictured with Dr David Westaby.
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Dr Roger Chapman winner of a BASL Distinguished Service Award in 2016 pictured with Dr Jane Collier.
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Dr James Dooley receiving a BASL Distinguished Service Award in 2016 from Dr David Patch
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Colleagues at the recent HCC-UK meeting that took place in March at Newcastle/Gateshead.
BASL2017 Annual Meeting - Register for your early bird prices NOW!
Find out more
Find out more about the work of our committee sub-groups and forums by clicking the logos below. These include The British Viral Hepatitis Group, British Association for the Study of the Liver Nurse Forum and the British Liver Transplant Group.
The British Viral Hepatitis aims to improve the management and study of patients with chronic viral liver disease, bringing together UK hepatologists, gastroenterologists, infectious disease physicians, virologists and interested epidemiologists.
British Association for the Study of the Liver Nurse Forum is a professional nursing organisation aiming to develop knowledge and understanding of liver disease, in order to improve the quality of patient care.
The BLTG (British Liver Transplant Group) was launched in 2014 to represent the professional interests of liver transplantation in the UK and promote strategic and academic development.
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Join BASL
Join BASL
BASL is a multi-disciplinary society with around 900 members composed of interested individuals from clinical medicine, clinical and basic research and allied professions. Your Annual subscription is used to organise the Annual Meeting held each September.
Members of BASL receive the following benefits:
- discounted registration rates for the annual meeting and other relevant meetings
- eligibility for the BASL Travel Awards (for members below status of Senior Lecturer or Consultant to allow presentation of high-quality UK liver research at International meetings, including the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease)
- eligibility for the prestigious Dame Sheila Sherlock Award (to an emerging researcher in the field of liver disease, for members below status of Senior Lecturer or consultant). Applications are usually submitted to the BASL Committee three months prior to the annual meeting - details are announced.
Click here to find out more about joining us.
News
Read an article by Professor Mark Thursz in the Huffington Post > here.
Professor Mark Thursz is professor of hepatology at Imperial College and consultant in hepatology at St Mary's Hospital, London. Professor Thursz is also the current Chair of the Hepatitis C Coalition.
Trust Clinical Fellow (Str Higher Non NTN) in Hepatology
Job Reference: 216-9645-HEP
Employer: Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust
Department: 216 120698 Hepatology Medical Staff
Location: Plymouth
Salary: £30,605 to £48,123 pa
Closing date 24th September 2017
For further information about this vacancy click > here.
Dr. Mary Ramsay and Dr Sema Mandal
Immunisation, Hepatitis, Blood Safety and Countermeasures Response
There is a global shortage of hepatitis B vaccine which is currently impacting severely on the UK supply. The situation is particularly critical during August but limitations on supply are likely to continue until early 2018. To ensure that stock is available for those individuals at highest and most immediate risk of exposure to hepatitis B, Public Health England (PHE) has developed temporary recommendations to support clinicians undertaking an individual risk assessment.
PHE and Department of Health (DH) have been working with both vaccine manufacturers to institute ordering restrictions according to customer type. The allocation is based on an agreed assessment of the proportion of vaccines used by that provider type for individuals in the highest priority groups. As a consequence, some providers may not be able to order any stock and others will have limits applied to their orders. A mechanism will be in place, however, to allow for exceptional orders if there is an urgent and immediate need for an individual following an individual risk assessment.
NHS Hospital Trusts will get the highest allocation, but it has been agreed with the BMA's General Practitioners Committee that general practice will not be able to order any adult hepatitis B vaccine stock until further notice. Because of this, patients requiring post-exposure hepatitis B vaccination will be referred to urgent care or Accident and Emergency based in NHS trusts for an assessment. In addition, specialist services such as liver services, who may normally request that GPs offer hepatitis B vaccination to their patients should note that the GP may not be able to meet this request.
To sustain supply for those at greatest need, all services are being asked to:
- ensure that clinicians are aware of the temporary recommendations on prioritising vaccines
- only order essential vaccine stock (small amounts more frequently) and avoid stockpiling
- coordinate and monitor stock usage across the service to ensure that scarce stock is being used responsibly
- accept and use alternative products including combined hepatitis A and B vaccines, and other presentations (e.g. multi-dose packs)
Download the full list of recommendations here > Download Hepatitis B vaccine shortage PHE letter.pdf
Highlights from last year's BASL Annual Meeting can be found in this months edition of the Clinical Liver Disease (CLD) Journal.
Read the 'Best of BASL’ papers, view video presentations of the articles and watch interviews with the Authors.
View the CLD Journal Volume here.
Public Health England (PHE) has published its Hepatitis C in the UK Annual Report 2017 to coincide with World Hepatitis Day, 27th July 2017.
View the Annual Report > here.
The latest version of the Royal College of Physician’s (RCP) Medical Care has been published today.
Medical Care is a web based planning resource produced by RCP in partnership with UK’s medical specialty societies. The updated version includes further information on workforce and medical specialty specific job planning and additional content on diabetes and endocrinology services.
Medical Care is a valuable resource for clinicians and managers working in the NHS. The resource provides support for:
· Designing services – this includes a short description of the specialty and the patient population, and a summary of the workforce needs to support service provision
· Developing physicians – which includes information on the education, training and continuing professional development, workforce and job planning for physicians
· Improving quality and medical leadership – By exploring the latest ideas on how to develop physicians and teams.
The resource can be found by clicking > here or at www.rcpmedicalcare.org.uk.
For queries please contact medicalcare@rcplondon.ac.uk.
The Lancet Commission into Liver Disease in the UK has published 'The Financial Case for Action on Liver Disease' report.
Read the report here; Download Financialcaseforactiononliverdiseasepaper.pdf
The alcohol section contains new data on the impact of minimum unit pricing, outlining that within 5 years of introducing MUP in England there would be:
• 1,150 fewer alcohol-related deaths
• 74,500 fewer alcohol-related hospital admissions
• Savings of £325.7m in healthcare costs
• Savings of £710.9m in crime costs.
Read the advice for managing patients with PBC who are unresponsive to UDCA below.
Events
For more details of the conference visit the official website – here.
The Royal Free International Advanced Endoscopy Masterclass is a comprehensive, major educational event with the participation of a stellar faculty of highly acclaimed international and national speakers to showcase the state-of-the-art of advanced endoscopy.
The Royal Free International Advanced Endoscopy Masterclass shall be held at the elegant and spacious home of the Royal Society of Medicine in the heart of central London and shall consist of 2 full days of didactic and interactive lectures (including dedicated hepatology and neuro-endocrine symposia) followed by a day of hands-on endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) training on tissue models with international experts. The ESD hands-on course shall run in parallel with a state-of-the-art IBD post-graduate symposium.
Further information - http://londonendoscopymasterclass.com/
Join us on 5th-6th September 2017 to help celebrate 5000 Liver Transplants and 30 years of Liver Research in Birmingham.
Keynote speakers will include internationally renowned pioneers of liver transplantation and experts in liver disease.
There will be parallel specialist sessions for basic scientists, nursing staff and allied health professionals.
Abstract submissions are being accepted for the poster sessions during the conference.
We would like to invite all trainees, international fellows, researchers and all other colleagues who have contributed to this success, to get together, share our experiences and discuss the future of liver transplantation and liver research in a scientific forum.
Registration and abstract submission details are available on the website > here.
Venue: Medical School University of Birmingham
Venue - Warwick Conference Centre at the University of Warwick, Coventry.
As an affiliate of BASL, the BTLG has built on the role of the UK and Ireland Annual Meeting and will integrate the meetings previously organised by each individual transplant centre to offer a central stage for those operating in or with a strong interest in the field of liver transplantation.
The third meeting of the Britsh Liver Transplant Group (BLTG) takes place on Tuesday 19th September and carries over to the morning of Wednesday 20th September before the BASL Annual Meeting starts at lunchtime on the Wednesday.
Highlights of the meeting include the ‘Williams-Calne Lecture’, given this year by Professor Peter Friend (Oxford). An additional highlight is the state of the art lecture by Professor Geoff McCaughan (Sydney).
For full details about the BLTG Transplant Meeting visit the BASL Annual Meeting 2017 website - here.
REGISTRATION OPEN
The BLTG Transplant Meeting registrations are now live - to register click - here.
The World Gastroenterological Conference is taking place on 20-21 September 2017 in Philadelphia, USA.
Gastro 2017 will be structured around the theme “Advancing the science of gastroenterology and patient care” and is directed to Gastroenterologists, Surgeons, Care doctors, Faculties, Gastrointestinal fellows, Delegates. Our goal is to enhance the knowledge as well as to emphasize novel discoveries in the research and practice of Gastroenterology and Digestive diseases. It is comprised of keynote and speakers sessions and workshop on latest cutting edge research designed to offer comprehensive global discussions that address current issues in gastroenterology.
Venue: Doubletree by Hilton Philadelphia Airport
4509 Island Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19153
To find out more information about the event visit the conference website > here.
BASL members have been offered an exclusive discount on registration fees and 2 nights accommodation for the cost of $799 USD. Please contact gastro@alliedconferences.org for further information.
To register for the event click here and enter the following discount code: WGC106.
Venue: Warwick Conference Centre at the University of Warwick, Coventry.
The BASL Annual Meeting is the highlight of the BASL calendar and the main liver meeting in the UK. This year we hope to attract in excess of 500 delegates, where all of us interested in liver disease will share time whether we are clinicians, nurses, basic scientists, pharmacists, working in industry or students.
This year the BASL conference opens after lunch on Wednesday 20th September and continues through to lunchtime on Friday 22nd September. With the BASL NF Nurses Day running in parallel on Thursday 21st September.
On Wednesday the BASL conference explores clinical and liver related aspects of senescence with a distinguished international faculty. A highlight of the meeting will be the state of the art lecture by Professor Judith Campisi (Buck Institute, California). The second day has two streams: first, the interaction between the Liver and the Gut and second, the named lectures. These include the Ralph Wright Lecture (Professor John O’Grady) the British Liver Trust Lecture (Dr. Mary Ramsay), the inaugural Alex Mowat Lecture (Dr. Sue Beath) and the annual Dame Sheila Sherlock Prize Lecture.
For full details about the BASL Annual Meeting and the BASL NF Nurses Day visit the BASL Annual Meeting 2017 website - here.
REGISTRATION OPEN
For both the BASL Annual Meeting and the Nurses Day registrations are now live - to register now click - here.
The Annual Cambridge Liver Symposium is taking place at Robinson College, Cambridge on Friday 29th September 2017.
The event is FREE to attend and CPD accredited.
View the programme here; Download Cam liver symp 2017 programme.pdf
For more information and how to register please contact: Helen Paterson on 01223 586891 or email: helen.paterson@addenbrookes.nhs.uk .
The EASL-AASLD joint meeting on Alcohol related Liver Disease will take place in London on Saturday 30th September and Sunday 1st October.
The conference will address topics on public health, diagnostic definitions, therapeutic advances and clinical endpoints in alcohol related liver disease and alcoholic hepatitis and should be of interest to all GI trainees and Hepatologists.
This conference will be a unique occasion to interact with experts and top-researchers, to get new ideas but also to contribute in the field of therapeutic development in ALD and alcoholic hepatitis.
To view the programme, submit an abstract and to register visit the website by clicking > here.
Announcements
We are pleased to announce that the liver disease quality standard (QS152) has been published on the NICE website today.
You can view the quality standard by clicking > here.
BASL has formally supported the liver disease quality standard.
Join BASL Ward Membership Today - £100 per annum for up to 5 members per ward.
Download a flyer for your noticeboard - Download BASLNF Ward Membership Flyer May 17.pdf.
To find out how to apply click here
Click here to view the BASL Newsletter - July 2017.
Click here to view the Alcohol Health Alliance Newsletter - August 2017.
Click here to view the NICE Newsletter - June 2017.
Learning Toolkits
The BASL Nurse Toolkits were developed following conversations with nurse specialists. These and a later email survey identified training needs to help nurses meet the liver nurse competencies. To access the Learning Toolkits sign in as a BASL Member and click on Manage Account
Quick Links
BASL is connected to a number of national initiatives that you might be interested in.
