Resoundant was once again honored to participate in the annual International Liver Congress™, held in Paris from April 10-14. The ILC is one of the premier conferences for Hepatology and liver health, and this year featured a number of thoughtful public health perspectives, exciting scientific advancements and new guidance for clinical care. Here are just a few things from this year's meeting that we found particularly exciting.
High level of engagement
People not only gathered in the plenary sessions and exhibits halls, but also on social media. The overall social media footprint of ILC continues to grow year after year. This not only allows attendees to extend discussions that took place in specific sessions, but also helps those that can't attend follow along as well. Kudos to the EASL staff and attendees for their social savvy.
DAA treatments are working when looking at many key metrics
Every HCV patient that can thankfully avoid a liver transplant because of a successful DAA treatment is a liver that can be passed to the next person on the waiting list. And if you haven't done so yet, here is objective information of the benefits of organ donation.
Patient voices well represented
Once again, EASL supports the patient advocacy community by giving advocacy leaders excellent representation in the major plenary sessions.
Focus on fibrosis
Many of the scientific sessions turned their attention to the emerging burden of fatty liver disease. While many biomarkers are being examined (which is impressive to see), the consensus seems to be that the development of fibrosis is the marker with the most immediate clinical context.
New meta-analysis on MRE for NAFLD patients
EASL is always a great venue to spread the word about new research and findings. In this vein, we were pleased to see a new individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis for MR Elastography in NAFLD patients. IPD design meta-analyses are considered the gold standard for assessing multiple studies, and this new study showed a very high level of performance for MR Elastography when using liver biopsy as a reference.
For more highlights, go the ILC website for a day-by-day recap (https://ilc-congress.eu/). And don't forget to think about attending next year's ILC, to be held in Vienna. We hope to see you there!
