S6.11 - Multi-Metabolic Practices Integrate MASLD with Other Non-Communicable Diseases

Surfing the MASH Tsunami

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00:00:00 - Surf's Up: Season 6, Episode 11

This week, we modify our usual episode structure to focus on multi-metabolic practices and constructs. The multi-metabolic practices covered this week are run by non-hepatologists who have chosen to focus on the liver in a broader cardiometabolic context. They include two practices discussed during a two-part roundtable, one run by US gastroenterologist Dr. Karen Jerome-Zapadka and the EDOM practice in Spain, run by endocrinologists. The expert interview is with Dr. Emily Andaya, an internist who helms a cardiometabolic practice in Indiana, US, that focuses on the liver.

00:14:23 - Roundtable Part I: Groundbreaker and introduction

The core of the episodes started during the weekly groundbreakers, as guests began to describe the path that brought them from single-disease specialization to the broader multi-metabolic practice.. Immediately after the groundbreakers, participants describe their clinics today, including patient population and principles underlying their approach to treatment.

00:26:15 - Roundtable Part II: Tools they use

Guided by Louise, the specialists discuss the devices they use to screen and stage patients and the drugs they use to treat them. One interesting item that emerges is that EDOM relies on a 0-to-4 disease severity classification, but it does not align point-by-point with the 4-point fibrosis scale common in MASH.

00:40:28 - Roundtable Part III: Training Providers in the Clinics

Louise starts this segment by asking the EDOM team how they train practitioners in their clinic. EDOM trains practitioners in nutrition and technologists in the proper use of scanning devices. Karen comments that one big issue in re-training involves the length of visits: 15 minutes for a typical GI visit vs. 60 minutes for an initial multi-metabolic session and 30 minutes for follow-ups. Along with this, the information gathering technique are different.

00:50:57 - Roundtable Part IV: Patient Health and Wrap-up

Louise asks participants whether and how they have measured the impact the multi-metabolic approach has on patients' health (profound in both cases) and whether they are seeing an increase in HCC. Karen sees a difference among her long-term patients, while EDOM refers patients before their fibrosis reaches cirrhosis stage.

In the last part of the episode, panelists share perspectives on how their initial specialties fit with the broader multi-metabolic practice and the kinds of impact they can have on patients.

01:12:50 - Expert: Dr. Emily Andaya discusses US initiatives in multi-metabolic health

This week's expert is Dr. Emily Andaya, an Indiana (US)-based internist whose practice has expanded to take on a multi-metabolic focus. She begins by discussing her recent attendance at the American Society for Preventive Cardiology (SPC) meeting in Boston, where she heard a talk by Dr. Christos Montzoros, an endocrinologist and multi-metabolic advocate, who emphasized the importance of incorporating the liver into preventive cardiology's focus. Louise and Emily agree that cardiometabolic focus involves evaluating general, overall health, but Emily discusses how this might require a deeper or broader testing protocol for each target organ. Emily describes the 4-point CKM scale and Louise asks how fibrosis or NAS scoring, as deployed in the MASH CRN system, might be valuable here. This is a far-ranging conversation, but one special point of interest involves the psychological benefit of telling a patient they need to treat one (multi-metabolic) condition, instead of separate heart, kidney, endocrinological and liver conditions, which might feel far more overwhelming.

01:48:48 - Conclusion

Because Roger is on vacation, there is no business report this week.