The Fatty Liver Alliance is a Canadian non profit organisation working to raise awareness
and educate people about the risks of fatty liver disease. They run education, research and
advocacy programmes to support patients. They also help those already diagnosed with
liver disease by advocating for access to approved treatments and care.
Dr Jobson, who works for Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, was interviewed about his work
as the Clinical Director of Predictive Health Intelligence looking to identify those at risk of
developing fatty liver disease before symptoms are obvious.
In conversation with the president of the FLA Michael Betel, Dr Jobson said “We need to
identify patients at risk much earlier, as there are treatments for just about every condition
out there. The challenge for us is that we have the blood tests already going back many
years – and we should have found these patients earlier.”
Dr Jobson has now developed with colleagues a simple search engine that can find people
whose historic blood test results show them to be at higher risk. They are brought into the
clinic, assessed and then, if appropriate, put onto treatment. In this way, people do not get
ill and the NHS saves scarce resources.
The FLA podcast also featured Mark Swain who is the President of Canadian Association for
Study of Liver (CASL) and the most senior and well known clinician working in liver disease in
Canada. The podcast has a large specialist audience especially reaching across liver disease
researchers, patients and public health domains.