How does hepatoSIGHT® work in clinical practice?
The clinical challenge
Liver disease is often asymptomatic until advanced stages, yet the scale of the problem is growing: premature mortality in England rose by 42% between 2001 and 2023 (1), with more than 85,000 hospital admissions in 2022/23 (1) and liver cancer rates increasing by 177% between 1993–95 and 2017–19 (2).
While 80% of England lacks an effective pathway for early detection, finding those most at risk is the challenge (3). In clinical practice, we don’t have a lack of data, but the signals are hidden in years of test results, making it almost impossible to identify through standard clinical workflows.
With a high proportion of liver disease being preventable, proactive case-finding offers a major opportunity to identify at-risk people earlier, before damage progresses and whilst interventions are effective.
hepatoSIGHT® is a case-finding system that helps clinical teams use routine historical data to identify people who may have undiagnosed progressive liver disease and could benefit from further assessment.
It does this by helping clinicians analyse existing blood test results and other relevant data at scale, surface hidden risk earlier and act before patients present with more advanced disease.
How hepatoSIGHT works in practice
hepatoSIGHT® enables clinicians to search, filter and analyse large volumes of routine health data to identify people who may be at risk.
The process begins with data from local laboratory systems, including blood test results and relevant demographic information such as deprivation indices. This data is cleansed and curated so it can be used safely and effectively within the system.
Clinical teams can then use pre-defined or bespoke filters to set search criteria and thresholds. These filters are configurable, allowing clinicians to refine risk stratification based on clinical parameters, local priorities and available service capacity.
HepatoSIGHT delivers results in real time, allowing users to search through large volumes of data in seconds for key blood test results, calculated scores, and trends over time.
Instead of relying only on single abnormal results or patients already known to specialist services, clinicians can identify patterns across longitudinal data.
Searches can be saved, refined and re-run at any time. Identified groups can also be stored within the system, accessed through a simple interface and enhanced with additional bespoke data where needed.
It also supports population-level analysis, including mapping and identification of areas with high clinical needs or recent changes.
How clinical teams use the results
hepatoSIGHT doesn’t replace clinical judgement.
Once a cohort has been identified, clinicians can review the results and decide the most appropriate next step. Depending on the pathway, this may include inviting patients for clinical assessment, arranging transient elastography, requesting further blood tests, referring for specialist review, or placing patients into monitoring and prevention pathways.
This means case-finding can be tailored to local clinical need. Some services may use hepatoSIGHT to identify people at risk of advanced liver fibrosis, others may use it to support specific disease pathways, target underserved populations, or prioritise patients who are most likely to benefit from earlier intervention.
The clinical team remains in control of decision-making. hepatoSIGHT provides the data-driven insight to support that process.
How it supports better clinical practice
Instead of waiting for patients to present with symptoms, complications or advanced disease, hepatoSIGHT helps clinicians identify people earlier, when intervention may be more effective.
This can support more efficient risk stratification across a population, tailored to local needs and clinical capacity. It also helps make better use of existing data, ensuring that information already held within the health system can be used to improve patient care.
Earlier identification can improve patient outcomes by enabling earlier assessment, monitoring and intervention. It may also help prevent disease progression, reduce avoidable hospital admissions and limit the need for expensive treatments such as liver transplantation.
For clinical teams, hepatoSIGHT provides a practical way to find patients who may otherwise remain hidden within routine data. It supports clinicians to prioritise care, target resources and intervene sooner, while keeping clinical judgement at the centre of the pathway.
References:
- https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/liver-disease
- https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/liver-cancer/incidence
- https://bjgpopen.org/content/9/1/BJGPO.2024.0142