The BASL Annual Meeting 2017 is taking place at the Warwick Conference Centre at the University of Warwick, Coventry.

Put the date in your diary: 20th to 22nd September 2017.

Book your place to attend the BVHG meeting on 4th November.

The Keynote Speaker is Professor Jean-Michel Pawlotsky from the University of Paris - Est., who is presenting on 'Retreating those who have failed on DAAs – who, when and with what?'

BVHG meetings are FREE to BASL / BVHG Members. 

To view the programme and to book your place click > HERE. 

Voting is now open for the British Viral Hepatitis Group (BVHG) Chair vacancy on the BASL Committee.

The BVHG Chair is elected by the BASL and BVHG membership to serve for a period of up to three years.

Your candidates in alphabetical order are:

• Dr Ahmed Elsharkawy
• Dr Ivana Carey

Further information of the responsibilities and personal statements from the candidates can be found in the survey.

Next Steps
To vote please click > HERE. 

So that we can verify that you are a BASL Member, please enter your name, place of work and email address when prompted at the end of the survey, this information will be kept confidential.

IMPORTANT: Your vote will only be counted if you are a verified BASL member.

The deadline for voting is Monday 14th November at 09:00.

Book your place to attend the School of Viral Hepatology meeting.

The BASL School is aimed at Nurses / SpRs / Doctors in Training.

The meeting takes place at the Hallam Conference Centre, London and runs in parallel with the main BVHG Meeting until 12:00 noon, when it joins with the BVHG meeting. 

The School of Viral Hepatology is FREE to BASL Members.

To view the programme and to book your place click > HERE.

British Hepatology Pharmacists Group (BHPG) has recently become affiliated with the British Viral Hepatitis Group (BVHG).

It is a professional pharmacy organisation aiming to develop knowledge and understanding of liver disorders including viral hepatitis, in order to improve the quality of patient care, through:

• Promoting excellence in the provision of pharmaceutical care to all patients with liver disorders including viral hepatitis
• The promotion of a collaborative and multi-disciplinary approach to caring for people with liver disorders including viral hepatitis
• The provision of educational support and educational opportunities in the field of hepatology and viral hepatitis;
• The promotion and dissemination of patient-focused research.
In order to raise awareness and ensure there is regional committee coverage, please get in touch if you wish to be involved.

We are looking for committed individuals in the field to join the committee with our first business meeting to be held on 4th November 2016 at the BVHG meeting in London.

If anyone is interested, please contact Adele Torkington, the BHPG Chair; Adele.Torkington@pat.nhs.uk .

Please pass this message on to pharmacists within your unit who are not yet BASL members. Hepatologists might also want to update their pharmacists about the new group.

As some will know, there has been recent difficulty prescribing Trientine following a price hike by Univar.  BASL drew attention to this earlier in the summer.  It is still to be hoped that the price will fall.

The change in price has caused both patients and physicians difficulties with access to therapy in situations where the increased cost can no longer be met locally.

It is not clear what implications there are nationally for managing patients with Wilson’s disease since the number of patients treated in the UK is unknown. Nor is it known how such patients are managed, although it is likely there is considerable variation.

As a consequence BASL would like to obtain a picture of Wilson’s disease in UK Hepatology and invite you to complete the short survey by clicking on the link > HERE. 

The data will be considered confidential.

Thank you for your time. 

Emmanouil Tsochatzis, James Dooley & Graeme Alexander.

Alcoholic hepatitis remains a difficult condition to treat with conflicting evidence as to its best management.

The recent STOPAH trial results have had a mixed reception among the gastroenterology and hepatology community and there is a variation in clinical management across the country. We would like to document this variation and determine how to improve care for this group of patients.

If you could assist and participate in a short survey which will take 5 minutes of your time.

Please click on the following link:   https://goo.gl/forms/OTJ6vaSEqYfH4N0O2 .

Thank you for your time.

Dr Ashwin Dhanda, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer, Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust
Dr Stephen Atkinson, MRC Clinical Research Training Fellow, Imperial College London
Prof Mark Thursz, Professor of Hepatology, Imperial College NHS Trust

Recently the Institute of Alcohol Studies and Alcohol Research UK have been developing an online alcohol research directory: the Alcohol Research Grapevine.

Its primary functions are:

• To allow researchers to upload profiles listing publications and outlining areas of professional interest
• To create a searchable database of published, but also (importantly) ongoing and prospective research
• To support collaboration by helping researchers to find colleagues working in similar areas, or to publicise areas of work they are interested in pursuing
• To allow researchers to notify colleagues of available data that may benefit from further analysis.

More details can be found on the directory's website: http://alcoholresearchgrapevine.co.uk/ .

Anyone interested in alcohol research is encouraged to register and create a profile. If you have any questions, please contact Jon Foster at IAS at jfoster@ias.org.uk .

A survey is being conducted by both the BASL Liver Nurse Forum and the Hepatitis C Trust to gain an insight into the impact of the limitation of hepatitis C treatment on the working lives of nurses.

The purpose of the survey is to try and capture how not being able to offer treatment and telling patients that they need to wait impacts on nurses.

You can participate in the survey > HERE.

The survey is anonymous, however we would like to share these insights with the media. If you would like to speak to the media there is an opportunity to add a contact email address at the end of the survey.

Thank you for your time.

Fiona Fry – Chair of the BASL Nurse Forum.

The BJN Hepatology/Liver Nurse of the Year award will recognise nurses who care for and treat very unwell patients with a range of life-altering conditions and diseases. The important work within this specialty should be recognised and any nurse who has made a special impact on hepatology/liver nursing should apply or be nominated.

Many people's lives are touched by these conditions and diseases, and whether they practice in hospitals or the community, nurses will find themselves caring at some stage for such patients.

This Award will recognise an individual or team who have made a demonstrable improvement to the delivery of excellent patient care.

Entries close on 12 December 2016.

Enter or nominate a colleague today by visiting the BJN website by clicking > HERE.