ALF Raises Awareness of Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)

For International NASH Day on June 12th, the American Liver Foundation joined a global community to raise awareness about a serious and potentially deadly liver condition: nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). With support from the Allergan Foundation, we are now piloting a NASH Text Messaging Program, where individuals can sign up to receive three weekly messages for 10 weeks. Messages include NASH facts, links to NASH resources, practical tips for daily self-management, interactive quizzes, and more. When the pilot is completed and evaluated, ALF will open the program up to the general public. Stay tuned.

The Allergan Foundation is also supporting our exciting new NASHional Conversation, a social media awareness campaign to educate people about NASH and its risk factors. The campaign helps individuals assess their risk and discuss NASH with their doctors. On the landing page, NASHionalConverstation.com, people can take a short risk assessment, hear the stories of others, and download a guide to start a conversation with their doctors about NASH.

ALF also joined with the Global Liver Institute (GLI) for International NASH Day. We shared their materials and they shared. ALF put up multiple posts with links to GLI posts and the International #NASHday page. In addition, many of our day-of posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram led people to ALF and the NASH Day official website.

As ALF’s Chief Operating Officer, I had the honor of contributing, along with Jeffrey V. Lazarus, Massimo Colombo, Helena Cortez-Pinto, Terry T.-K. Huang, Veronica Miller, Michael Ninburg, Jörn M. Schattenberg, Vincent W. S. Wong and Shira Zelber-Sagi to a unified statement “NAFLD – Sounding the Alarm about NAFLD/NASH” in Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology. The statement was also presented as a blog post and “ALF News” on the liverfoundation.org main landing page, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

ALF’s Desert Southwest Division partnered with Transplant Hepatologist, Naim Alkhouri, MD, a Division Medical Advisory Committee member, and the Team at Arizona Liver Health for an informational webinar covering topics like Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD): Overview and Healthcare Burden; Pediatric Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD); and Current and Upcoming Treatment for Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Dr. Alkhouri comes to Arizona from Cleveland Clinic by way of Texas and is very highly regarded in the field of NASH. The feedback has been excellent and the segments are posted on social media for national viewing. This webinar can be viewed on our Youtube page and was supported by Intercept Pharmaceuticals.

Possibly our most creative activity was the Nash Bash, a virtual festival hosted by the American Liver Foundation Greater New York Division’s Associate Board of Young Professionals to raise awareness about NASH, share the importance of liver wellness and raise vital funds for the American Liver Foundation. It was a full weekend (June 12th to 14th) of LIVE classes and activities including comedy, trivia, dancing, creative doodling, brunch and more. Brian Mooney, a planner of and participant in the event, told us, “The NASH Bash weekend was an awesome experience. I loved the diversity in events so that as many people as possible were included: comedy, fitness, cooking, coffee brewing, yoga & meditation. As a recent recipient of a liver transplant, I tried yoga for the first time and will now pursue doing it more to help in recovery”.

Lynn Seim
EVP & Chief Operating Officer
American Liver Foundation