The Diversity and Inclusion Committee promotes health disparities research and efforts to improve health outcomes among ethnic and racial groups who carry a higher burden of liver disease. Based on positive feedback from the 2018 workshop on Ethnic and Racial Disparities in Liver Disease, this two-hour workshop reviews current programmatic efforts to eliminate disparate outcomes in liver disease and liver transplantation.

Acute on Chronic Liver Failure (ACLF) is a well-recognized rapid course of liver disease that can have devastating consequences on patients. At this symposium, faculty will discuss ACLF’s common triggers and explore current perspectives of management in the context of these triggering events. Topics covered include microbiome analysis to identify high-risk patients and the role of transplantation.

Review data from ongoing clinical trials for alcoholic hepatitis, explore the role of early liver transplantation and discuss the management of alcohol use disorder in patients with alcoholic hepatitis and acute on chronic liver failure. Topics covered include trial design considering standards of care and liver transplantation’s emerging role and subject recruitment challenges for clinical trials in alcoholic hepatitis.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis has become a leading indication for liver transplantation in the United States and worldwide. At this symposium, faculty will review pre-transplant evaluation and assessment of comorbid conditions in these patients, early and long-term challenges after transplantation, patterns of recurrence of the disease and potentially preventive strategies.

DESCRIPTION The practice of Hepatology is largely consultative in nature, whether evaluating outpatients referred for a variety of abnormal liver enzyme findings or diagnosing and managing critically-ill patients within a team of internists, hospitalists, residents, intensivists, and other healthcare providers. On any given day, a hepatologist will be confronted with complex patients and dizzying differential diagnoses to be methodically considered. The aim of this course is to provide insights about state-of-the-art consultative Hepatology attendees that can be applied to daily practice.

Aynur Unalp‐Arida, Constance E. Ruhl – 9 November 2019

Seonghwan Hwang, Yong He, Xiaogang Xiang, Wonhyo Seo, Seung‐Jin Kim, Jing Ma, Tianyi Ren, Seol Hee Park, Zhou Zhou, Dechun Feng, George Kunos, Bin Gao – 9 November 2019

At this symposium, experts on pediatric acute liver failure (PALF) will review the role of inflammation in etiopathogenesis of common comorbidities and discuss emerging topics in pediatric acute-on-chronic liver failure and extrahepatic support strategies. They will discuss the complexity of medical decision making in PALF and review indications for liver transplant in these patients.

The microbiome is recognized as an important player in liver disease pathogenesis. The liver’s close proximity to the gut makes it particularly susceptible to changes in the intestinal microbiome. This workshop uses the microbiome as an example to facilitate appreciation of the tools available to perform clinical research, as well as specific research tactics for microbiome-related study.

At this symposium, experts share the latest advances in the research of the microbiome and its relationship with NAFLD. They will discuss the microbiome’s association with disease progression, fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Topics covered will include the “cross talk” between obesity, the microbiome and NAFLD in both animal models and humans.