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Aug
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- QuestPrehab to begin working with 50 patients requiring liver transplantation
- First prehab service to work remotely with patients waiting on a transplant list
- The year-long trial to focus on anxiety reduction and improvement of liver frailty scores
- Potential to expand the service to patients with other liver diseases
Wednesday 17th July 2024: Kent-based telehealth company QuestPrehab has signed a contract with the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust to deliver digital prehabilitation (‘prehab’) services to liver patients across Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.
The year-long trial with the South West Liver Unit at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust will see QuestPrehab work with 50 patients undergoing assessment and listing for liver transplant. If successful, the service may be expanded to patients living with other liver diseases and who currently are not on the list.
The digital programmes and resources run by the team at QuestPrehab will be specially developed to cater for the clinical and holistic needs of liver patients in collaboration with the Plymouth-based hospital team.
Prehab is a relatively new area of healthcare that focuses on improving the general health and activity of patients before surgery / treatment as a way of aiding their recovery.
Patients who complete their prehab course prior to planned surgery are less likely to be readmitted to hospital, enjoy improved health-related quality of life, return to work earlier and need less involvement with social and primary care providers.
The aim of the trial is to demonstrate two pivotal elements:
- the feasibility of remote delivery of prehab and the benefits in health-related quality of life for patients awaiting liver transplant
- how the usually long waiting time can be utilised in a positive and clinically effective manner … 50% of patients listed for transplant typically have a wait of six months or more
“We’re very excited to have the opportunity to expand much-needed support to our patients here in the south west,” said Professor Matthew Cramp, Consultant Hepatologist at the South West Liver Unit, UHP.
“Liver transplant patients face many challenges and to be able to provide a personalised prehab service while they wait for their surgery is something we’ve been keen to offer for some time. Having the consistency of supervision by a prehab specialist we hope will lead to a lower risk of complications post-transplant and improve quality of life both pre and post-operatively.”
“The signing of this ground-breaking contract with the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust will see us working hand-in-hand with the South West Liver Unit at Derriford Hospital to improve quality of life for their transplant patients,” said QuestPrehab founder Professor Tara Rampal. “Waiting for a liver transplant is an extremely anxious time for all patients. They face the uncertainty of when they will be called up for the transplant whilst also dealing with the consequences of advanced liver disease and the worry that their condition may deteriorate during this time.”
“Patients will receive a highly personalised programme based on four key areas – physical activity, anxiety management, diet advice and lifestyle modifications – with a goal of alleviating their level of anxiety and improving their liver frailty score.”
Each patient will be able to access their individualised programmes via QuestPrehab’s app. Exercise classes and support sessions will be delivered by a combination of phone, Zoom or Skype calls. Those patients who do not have access to suitable technology will be able to loan equipment from the South West Liver Unit during the trial at no cost to themselves.
The 12-month trial will be evaluated through standardised patient reported outcome measures and physical assessment scores.
News of the contract – the first of its kind in the UK – follows QuestPrehab’s recent deal to supply prehab services to two hospitals in China, along with its success in working with NHS oncology patients over the past four years.
Professor Tara Rampal explains: “Our service is scalable and cost efficient, making wide-scale adoption of digital prehab possible. It doesn’t require any modifications to pre-existing infrastructure, processes, patient pathways, or systems, so can be easily inserted into any healthcare provider.”
ENDS
Aug
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We would like to invite all members with an interest in the study of the liver to take part in a Delphi process to develop a Quality Standards Framework for management of liver disease in the UK.
A multi-disciplinary group was set up in order to develop quality standards for the management of people with chronic liver disease, in order to improve and standardise liver disease care across the UK. The group comprised hepatologists, gastroenterologists, trainees, specialist liver nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and dieticians, and also included patient/lay representatives. A writing group has developed a set of proposed standards, and we would now like to seek involvement from the wider community of professionals involved in the care of patients with liver disease.
The process will consist of a series of Delphi rounds responding to the proposed standards, including ranking them in terms of importance, relevance and reach.
On behalf of the BSG, BASL and BLNA, we would like to invite all those with interest in the study of the liver to participate in this process.
Participants must be able to commit to the following:
- Completing multiple rounds of Delphi survey (2-3 rounds expected), over the next few months.
All members of the Delphi panel who participate in all rounds will be acknowledged as co-authors on any subsequent publication.
Jul
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Applications are invited from Nurse, Pharmacist and AHP members who are UK-based to apply for a travel bursary.
There are a number of sponsored travel bursary scholarship awards for members this year to attend the forthcoming BASL/BLNA October Meeting in Harrogate.
Scholarship awards are capped at a maximum of £300 per person and are considered a contribution towards a registration fee, travel and accommodation expenses.
When completing the application form, please only select the level of bursary you need so that we can support as many nurse, pharmacist and AHP members as possible to attend the annual meeting.
The bursary levels are:
Level 1 up to £300
Level 2 up to £200
Level 3 up to £100
NB: Bursaries awarded will be capped at the level applied for on the application form.
Please read the Bursary Guidance below before applying:
Download Bursary Guidance Document 2024 v1_July 2024.pdf
Application form - for a Word document of the application form contact admin@basl.org.uk .
Jul
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The UK National Screening Committee’s (UK NSC’s) 2024 Annual Call for Topics is now open.
During the 3-month annual call, which closes on 30 September 2024, any individual or organisation can submit proposals to the UK NSC for:
- new screening topics
- modifications to, or the ceasing of, existing screening programmes
- early updates to screening topics that the UK NSC has considered in the past 3 years
Proposals can cover population, targeted or risk-stratified screening programmes.
Please refer to the UK NSC annual call: submitting a screening proposal guidance before making a submission.
The 2024 annual call runs from 1 July 2024 to 30 September 2024.
Please email uknsc@dhsc.gov.uk if you have any queries about the annual call process.
Jul
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The European Medicines Association (EMA) issued a statement on Obeticholic acid (Ocaliva) for the treatment of primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) on 28 06 2024.
The EMA has recommended that the marketing authorisation for Ocaliva be revoked in the European Union following results of the COBALT trial, 747-302 . In the UK EMA recommendations do not apply, as we are regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). At present, there are no changes to the recommendations on use of Obeticholic acid in PBC from the MHRA or the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and so current prescribing practices should NOT change.
We shall update the UK liver community if there are any changes to the recommendations on the use of Obeticholic acid.
Please find the link to the longer statement to follow > Here .
Jun
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The BASL ArLD special interest group has just launched a national audit (ALERT UK) on the in-patient management of patients with alcohol related liver disease (ArLD). We are keen to get as many sites as possible involved to get a representative sample of current care in the UK.
'ALERT UK' is multicentre retrospective audit and has been endorsed by the BSG, BASL and Torch UK.
In short, we only require data from 20 patients from each site and have a 'pre-coded' spreadsheet based on HES codes to send to your hospital data team to easily identify the patients for inclusion.
All contributors will be named as PubMed citable authors on any publications.
Further information including the full audit protocol can be found here on the BSG website :
https://www.bsg.org.uk/news/alcohol-related-liver-disease-audit-alert-uk
Each site can have up to 4 audit members made up of any of the clinical team involved in the care of inpatients with ArLD ( eg doctors of any grade, nurses, members of alcohol care team, allied health professionals etc)
If you are interested please register your site via this link: https://forms.gle/dj7KKczb9FQ6
Closing in mid-July.
If you have any questions please contact us : alertaudituk@gmail.com .
Please spread the word in your region if you think of others who may be interested in participating.
Jun
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Pabrinex IV will be out of stock from July/ August 2024 until September 2025, due to supply issues relating to manufacturing regulations issued by the EU.
Pabrinex IM will be permanently discontinued from December 2024. Pabrinex is only used in the UK, with thiamine IV/ IM being routinely used globally.
At present the plan is to obtain unlicensed IV and IM thiamine from Europe with dosing guidance available via the SPS link below.
Applications for the licensing of thiamine IM and IV are due to go to the MHRA, which will hopefully be granted before the end of the year.
It is important to note if a Patient Group Direction (PGD) is being used (often used in community setting) only licensed products can be used in this setting. Therefore IM Pabrinex should be conserved for this purpose.
The following has been published online by the DHSC Specialist Pharmacy Service – see link below:
Using and prescribing thiamine in alcohol dependence – SPS - Specialist Pharmacy Service – The first stop for professional medicines advice
Joanna Henry, Gastroenterology Directorate Pharmacist, Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust
Sital Shah, Chair British hepatology Pharmacy Group , Consultant Pharmacist, King’s College hospital, London
Jun
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BASL have produced this survey about liver disease service provision in the UK.
We would be extremely grateful if you could complete the short survey (which should take no longer than 10 minutes) using the link below.
We would ask that only one response is completed for each hospital to avoid duplication.
This is part of a larger project which builds on the Lancet Liver Commission, aiming to develop a better understanding of the needs of patients requiring liver disease services across the whole of the care pathway, from early identification to specialist treatment. The national Hepatobiliary & Pancreas Clinical Reference Group (chaired by Professor Richard Aspinall) is leading work to bring about the transformation of liver disease services, reducing inequalities in terms of access, uptake and outcomes and the response to this survey will be used as supporting evidence. As Integrated Care Boards take on more responsibility for commissioning local services, the findings from this survey will clarify where there are gaps in service provision and where there are opportunities to strengthen networks to improve population health outcomes.
Although we are asking for your email address, that is purely for administrative purposes. All responses will be confidential and a final report will be produced which will not enable any individual clinicians or hospitals to be identified.
The final report will be available on the BASL website but if you would like a copy emailed to you separately, please contact angeline.walker@nhs.net .
If you have any queries about the survey, please email michael.allison6@nhs.net or angeline.walker@nhs.net .
Thank you for taking the time to respond.
Please click > HERE to access and take part in the survey.
Thank you.
May
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The Viral Hepatitis Fellowship and Medical Grants programme will support innovative projects and initiatives that ultimately lead to an improvement in awareness, diagnosis, linkage to care and/or management of people living with viral hepatitis (B, C and Delta).
Further information on the Viral Hepatitis Fellowship and Medical Grants Programme can be found on Gilead’s website Here .
The application window for Viral Hepatitis is open from Monday 18th March to Friday 28th June 2024.
Should you have any questions regarding the process, application form, or the eligibility of your project, please email gileadfellowship@axon-com.com .
May
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Liver Cirrhosis Research
Calling all people living or working with liver disease - we need your help!
What do you think are the most important questions for liver cirrhosis research?
Scan the code in the flyer below to complete a 10 minute survey:
Download JLA-Liver-Cirrhosis-A4 Poster-May24.pdf
Or use this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Liver-cirrhosis-research
Cases of liver disease are increasing in the UK and although a lot of research is being done, we have not developed a new treatment for liver cirrhosis in the last 20 years.
