We are pleased to announce the official launch of the British Liver Nurses Association (BLNA). As you may already be aware, the BLNA is the new national liver nurses group, founded following the merger of the British Liver Nurses Forum (BLNF) and the British Association for the Study of the Liver Nurses Forum (BASLNF). 

After 2-3 years of collaborative working, the BLNF and BASLNF members reached a stage where their aims and objectives for liver nursing were such that it was agreed to unite so as to provide one powerful voice to raise the profile of liver nursing, across the UK.

The BLNA is a professional nursing association run by its members for its members and promises to continue to offer professional support for nurses working within all fields of liver disease. The BLNA will take forward the shared values and strengths from both BASLNF and BLNF and together with and on behalf of its members, will ensure opportunities are available to share best practice, as well as attend educational meetings, with the ultimate aim of improving standards of liver care to all people affected by liver disease.

The BLNA, also promises to continue to maintain and develop strong links with all those professional and charitable groups, locally, nationally and internationally. We look forward to working with you all, in the future.

Kind regards,

Michelle Clayton and Fiona Fry
Co-chairs BLNA

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is looking to appoint a number of people with the necessary experience and skills to fulfill the following roles:

• Health service representative – up to 3 people
• Lay member – 2 people

The appeal panel is responsible for hearing appeals against our draft final recommendations in the technology appraisal (new drugs and other technologies used in the NHS) and highly specialised technologies (the evaluation of technologies for treating patients with very rare diseases and very complex healthcare needs) programmes.

When an appeal is submitted an appeal panel comprising five members is drawn from those appointed to hear NICE appeals.

The health service representative must hold an active registration with the appropriate professional body (including for doctors, a licence to practise).

The lay representative must be a patient or carer, or a member of an organisation that represents patients or carers.

Appointees will need to have an ability to draw out and articulate a balanced view on the issues arising from an appeal that are relevant to patients, carers and/or members of the public, and an ability to critique and weigh up competing arguments and make decisions (sometimes difficult ones) in meetings that are open to the public. Appeal panels are established infrequently and appointees may only need to sit on a panel two to three times a year.

NICE welcome applicants from all interested parties. For further information on the role and how apply please refer to the NICE website: https://www.nice.org.uk/Get-Involved/join-a-committee . Alternatively you can contact Maria Pitan, Project Manager – Corporate Office by email maria.pitan@nice.org.uk .

Deadline for applications is midnight on Monday 2 October 2017.

PSC Support and UK-PSC are inviting applications from UK-based investigators to conduct, ethically approved, biomarker based, research using serum samples collected for the UK-PSC biobank during the recent re-consenting effort. Clinical data is available and ethics exist for the successful research teams to collect further data.

Grant Amount and Scope  - two grants of up to £15,000 each will be awarded.

Pilot and feasibility work to enable larger grant applications will be considered.

Your research project must address PSC Support Research Priorities and have anticipated clear patient benefit, as regards potential use of biomarkers in PSC management.

PSC Support is an NIHR non-commercial Partner. Appropriate research studies funded through 'PSC Support Research Project Grants' are now automatically eligible for NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) support and therefore entitled to access NHS support via the NIHR Clinical Research Network.

Applications
Applicants should send their completed PSC Support Application Form together with additional relevant study investigator CVs, ethics approval and letter of support from the relevant Head of Department to research@pscsupport.org.uk .

UK-PSC Biobank
At present we have just under 900 serum samples stored in the Cambridge Bioresource. Serum is aliquoted and just under 2/3rds of the samples come from pre-transplant patients with PSC.

Application Deadline - 31 October 2017

Expected Decision Date - 01 December 2017

For more details visit www.pscsupport.org.uk/2017ukpscfunding .  

Please find below the news release that has gone out today to coincide with the publication of PHE Liver Disease Atlas.

BASL has been involved in helping put this together.

Download Liver disease atlas press release v11 13092017.pdf

A report has just launched in Drug and Alcohol Review about ' How alcohol industry organisations mislead the public about alcohol and cancer'.

The report produced by Professor Mark Petticrew, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and colleagues is available to read here;  Download Report London School of Hygiene.pdf

Fixed Term posts of 12 months

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) opened on 1 April 2017 with the aim of using cutting edge experimental medicine to accelerate access to, and adoption of, drugs, devices and diagnostics tests for patients living with chronic inflammatory diseases. The NIHR Birmingham BRC brings together the expertise of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) and the University of Birmingham, both members of Birmingham Health Partners (BHP), and is one of 20 NHS and University partnerships across England that have been awarded funding through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

We are seeking two highly motivated Clinical Research Fellows to undertake research into chronic inflammatory disease. The post-holders willbe based in the Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy at the University of Birmingham in the Institute for Biomedical Research. One post will involve the delivery of the Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis–Inflammatory Bowel Disease research programme of the BRC, reporting to Professor Gideon Hirschfield. The second post will involve undertaking clinical trials and other studies in patients with chronic inflammatory disease including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and autoimmune liver disease, and will report to Professor Philip Newsome.

BRIEF PERSON SPEC
We are looking for clinicians with MRCP or equivalent, a potential ability to conduct and publish their own research, strong communication skills and an ability and eagerness to work in a multi-disciplinary team. The successful candidates will have an enthusiasm to learn and will be expected to register for a higher degree.

The positions are available for 12 months with potential and expectation to extend for a higher degree and submission of a fellowship application. Salary will be at the appropriate point on the appropriate clinical scale, with placement according to qualifications and experience.

Closing date: 21st September Reference: POST NUMBERS 57808 and 57809

To apply for these jobs please visit the University of Birmingham vacancies website.

Click here to view the Alcohol Health Alliance Newsletter - August 2017.

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.