Frontiers of liver disease: Managing the impact of advanced liver disease

Mark Thursz is professor of hepatology in the Division of Digestive Diseases and Head of the Department of Metabolism, Digestion & Reproduction in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London. Professor Thursz is a clinical hepatologist with inpatient beds and a clinic at St Mary’s Hospital. He was educated at King’s College London and trained in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at St Mary’s being appointed as senior Lecturer and honorary consultant in 1997. Professor Thursz runs a translation research programmes in alcohol-related liver disease and hepatitis B virus infection. He ran the NIHR-HTA funded Steroids or Pentoxifylline for Alcoholic Hepatitis (STOPAH) trial which explored the utility of existing treatments for alcoholic hepatitis and is now involved in a portfolio of trials in alcohol-related liver disease. Recently granted an MRC Stratified Medicine award he is now exploring novel biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and risk of infection in this condition. He is chief investigator for the NUC-B trial (funded by NIHR-EME) and a co-investigator on the PROLIFICA Programme for hepatitis patients in Sub-Saharan Africa. Professor Thursz was Secretary-General of the European Association for Study of the Liver 2011-13. He is currently Director of the Imperial College Biomedical Research Centre and Trust Research Director for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

David Patch was appointed as consultant to the Royal Free in 2019. His interests are portal hypertension and the management of splanchnic vein thrombosis. The Royal Free team has developed a thrombolysis pathway for patients with acute portal vein thrombosis, and this has become particularly relevant in the COVID vaccine era. He is married with three grown up children  and a dog called Norman

Professor Shahid A Khan is Professor of Practice (Hepatology) at Imperial College London and an NHS Consultant Hepatologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. He has lectured on liver disease nationally and internationally at Hepatology and Gastroenterology conferences, including state of the art and invited presentations. He is the lead author on the National guidelines for biliary cancer and is co-author on both the International and European guidelines. He has published extensively in the medical literature, including original research articles, reviews and book chapters. Professor Khan is currently Chair of Cholangiocarcinoma UK and serves on the NRCI HPB Cancer National Sub-group Committee and the Advisory Boards of the International Liver Cancer Association and the AMMF Cholangiocarcinoma UK Charity. Professor Khan enjoys a large teaching role, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and is an accredited UK Royal College of Physicians Educator and. He has supervised several PhD/MD studies in liver disease and is also Director of Admissions and Inclusivity for Imperial College Medical School, as well as previously serving as Director of the Gastroenterology & Hepatology BSc degree programme at Imperial College London and Director of Clinical Studies at St Mary’s Hospital Campus. In light of his educational achievements, he has been selected as a Senior Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Academy and has won Teaching awards at Imperial College London. He is a member of the British Medical Association, the Association of Physicians of GB and Ireland, the British Association for the Study of the Liver, the British Society of Gastroenterology, the European Association for the Study of the Liver and the International Liver Cancer Association, where he has served as the Chair of a Special Interest Group on biliary cancer.

Professor Emmanouil Tsochatzis is a Professor of Hepatology and Consultant at the UCL Institute for Liver and Digestive Health in the Royal Free Hospital and Head of the Centre for Metabolic Liver Diseases in ILDH. He leads the specialist multidisciplinary service in NAFLD and has an active research program. His clinical and research interests include NAFLD, cirrhosis and portal hypertension, non-invasive fibrosis assessment, cirrhosis and portal hypertension and metabolic liver disease including Wilson’s disease and iron disorders. Professor Tsochatzis finished his specialty training and PhD in Hippokration General Hospital in Greece, before moving to the Royal Free Hospital for his post-doc research. He has been a consultant hepatologist and a clinical academic since 2014. Since 2019, he is a member of the Scientific Committee and Governing Board of EASL. He sits on national and international clinical guideline committees, serves as specialist advisor to NICE, and is actively involved in undergraduate and postgraduate education. He is a member of the steering committee of the Baveno collaboration for portal hypertension. He has led several international research collaborations resulting in more than 230 publications in peer reviewed journals. He has designed pathways for risk stratification of patients with liver disease in primary care and is passionate on improving the outcomes of patients with liver disease. He has received funding for his research from NIHR, EASL and EU Horizon 2020.