News

The HCC-UK committee is seeking nominations for the following positions on its committee.

Once elected the post holders will serve for a period of three years and may be re-elected for one further term:

• Chair - will chair committee meetings
• Secretary
• Conference & education co-leads x 2 posts
• Hepatology representative
• Oncology representative
• Surgery representative
• Radiology representative

More information about HCC-UK can be found on the BASL website > Here

Any BASL member who wishes to be affiliated to HCC-UK and receive specific communications from the group can do so via the Member area of the BASL website by updating their member profile.

Nomination Process
Please send your nomination, clearly stating the position that your nomination is for, to the BASL Secretariat at judy@basl.org.uk by the deadline of 23:59hrs on Friday 5th September 2025.

Candidates wishing to be considered for election should be a member of BASL / HCC-UK and will require one BASL / HCC-UK member to propose them and a second to confirm their suitability for the role in writing. (Nomination of candidates is via email.)

If more than one candidate is nominated the Secretariat will arrange for an election of BASL HCC-UK members.

Should an election be required, candidates will need to submit a personal statement of up to 300 words. The successful candidate will be elected by a simple majority of those members voting.

If you need any more information, please contact judy@basl.org.uk.

(13/08/2025)

We are conducting an international survey exploring clinician attitudes towards stopping HCC surveillance in elderly patients. Patients with chronic liver diseases and cirrhosis who are at risk of HCC are living longer. Current guidelines offer no firm recommendations on when to stop HCC surveillance with respect to age, comorbidities, predicted life expectancy, and functional status. The findings from this study will define current global practice patterns, identify areas of consensus and uncertainty, and ultimately help inform future recommendations on offering and stopping HCC surveillance.

The survey will take 10-15 minutes to complete and mainly involves responding to questions in multiple choice format. The survey is anonymous and confidential. We cannot identify you from your answers and we cannot link your data back to any other information.

The survey link is below:

https://redcap.slhd.nsw.gov.au/surveys/?s=DMJTWLCA9JJEKWCP 

Survey closes 5th September 2025 

Thank you.

Dr Georgia Zeng, BMed MD
Gastroenterology Advanced Trainee
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW

Professor Ken Liu, Senior
Staff Specialist Transplant Hepatologist
AW Morrow Gastroenterology and Liver Centre Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW

BASL Committee would like to ask members for their nominations on who should receive a BASL Distinguished Service Award.

Awards are not given every year, but they are an opportunity for someone to be recognised by our association.

Nominations are invited from across our membership; Consultants, Trainees, Nurses, Pharmacists, Scientists and AHP’s.

Nominators must be a member of BASL/BLNA/BHPG/BAAL.

Nominees should be a BASL/BLNA/BHPG/BAAL member and based in the UK.

Nominees should have made significant contributions to liver healthcare and be retiring this year (not retiring and returning). If there are exceptional circumstances outwith this criteria, it is advised to discuss the circumstances with the BASL President who may permit an exceptional circumstance nomination at his/her/their discretion.

Awards cannot be given more than once, but if your nominee is not successful this year, they can be nominated again.

Nominations will be treated confidentially by the committee and nominees will not be informed of their nomination unless they are to receive an award.

Nominations and supporting evidence will only be accepted on the nomination form - to make your nomination please use the link below:

https://forms.gle/4zygYPbWuGAU6wGq7 

The full BASL Distinguished Service Award Criteria including the information required to complete the nomination form can be downloaded below:
Download BASL_Distinguished_Service_Award_Criteria_v1_final_July2025.pdf

The judging panel reserves the right to evaluate nominations and seek further information where necessary. The judging panel will review the nominations against set criteria and their decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into regarding their decision.

The Awards will be presented to the winners at the BASL Annual Meeting in October in Belfast.

Nominations close 09:00hrs Thursday 31st July 2025.

BASL is committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of its work and is actively promoting equal opportunities to our activities, including our awards, for all our members regardless of their background, place of work or professional group. We welcome applications from all disciplines in the field of liver healthcare.

If you have any questions, please contact admin@basl.org.uk 

BASL members are entitled to vote in elections for members of the BASL Committee and BLTG Committee.

Following the recent round of nominations for roles on the BASL Committee and BLTG Committee a vote by the membership will now take place for four of the advertised posts.

1) You are voting for BASL Treasurer.
Your candidates are:
Dr Ahmed Elsharkawy (re-elect)
Dr Nwe Ni Than

2) You are also voting for BASL Services Committee Lead.
Your candidates are:
Dr Michael Allison (re-elect)
Dr Ryan Buchanan

3) You are also voting for BASL BVHG Chair.
Your candidates are:
Dr Kosh Agarwal
Professor Patrick Kennedy (re-elect)

4) You are also voting for BLTG Transplant Hepatology Representative.
Your candidates are:
Professor Matthew Armstrong
Dr Claire Kelly
Dr Jonathan Potts (re-elect)

Get Involved and Have Your Say - members will receive a communication to their registered BASL email address on 11th July 2025. 

IMPORTANT: Your vote will only be counted if you are a verified BASL member. So that we can verify that you are a BASL Member, please enter your name, contact email address and place of work when prompted at the end of the survey.

The deadline for voting is 09:00hrs Friday 1st August 2025.

The result with be announced at the Annual Business Meeting of the Association on Friday 10th October 2025 during the BASL Annual Meeting in Belfast 7th – 10th October 2025.

If you are a BASL member and do not receive a communication, please contact admin@basl.org.uk .

Each year BASL presents the Dame Sheila Sherlock research prize, one of the highlights of the annual meeting. This prize is awarded annually to recognise the enormous contribution of Dame Sheila Sherlock to the development of Hepatology as a discipline in its own right.

Dame Sheila was involved in the foundation of the British Liver Club in 1961, which subsequently evolved into The British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL). She was one of our past presidents and the first recipient of the BASL Distinguished Service Award.

Eligibility
In keeping with Dame Sheila’s enthusiasm for fostering young researchers, this eponymous research prize is awarded to young investigators without substantive posts in either medicine, science or allied health roles for their research contributions in the field of hepatology.

The winner will receive free registration to the meeting, an award and a prize of £1,000 and an invite to deliver the prize lecture and present their research at the BASL Annual Meeting (8th-10th October 2025).

To apply, please send one A4 sheet outlining your research and another A4 sheet listing up to 5 related publications.

NB: one person cannot win the Dame Sheila Sherlock Research Prize and Andy Burroughs Young Investigator Award in the same year. Nor can they win a second award with the same body of work as the first.

You must be a BASL member to apply.

Please send submissions to conference@basl.org.uk before the deadline of Tuesday 1st July 2025.

BASL is committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of its work. It is actively promoting equal opportunities and access for all our members regardless of their background.

(added 13.5.25 / reposted 26.6.25)