The University of Alabama at Birmingham Liver Center will host its annual “Liver U Patient Education Program” from 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 7, in the Riverchase Ballroom on the second floor of the Hyatt Regency – The Wynfrey Hotel.
Registration will take place on the day of the event beginning at 9 a.m., and is limited to the first 100 people; the program begins at 9:30 a.m. A boxed lunch will be available for those in attendance.
UAB Liver Center physicians will present several new treatment regimens that have become available in the past year, including some that have shown excellent cure rates.
“Many of the new regimens are not as hard on the patient’s body as those in previous years,” said Omar Massoud, M.D., director of Clinical Liver Research in the School of Medicine’s Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. “The new treatments have virtually no side effects for most patients, and we are having great, sustained viral responses — to the point where we consider many patients cured after undergoing the newer treatments.”
Massoud is one of four UAB Liver Center physicians who will present new information. He will discuss updates in hepatitis C, screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.
Other physicians speaking, and their topics, include:
- Ashwani Singal, M.D., associate professor and co-director of the UAB Porphyria Center — “Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic Liver Disease”
- Sudha Kodali, M.D., assistant professor — “Liver Cancer”
- Brendan McGuire, M.D., professor and director of the UAB Liver Center — “Cirrhosis, Advanced Liver Disease and Liver Transplantation”
A patient also will be on hand to speak about his perspective on living with hepatitis C.
UAB’s Liver Center offers specialized care through outpatient clinics and an inpatient hepatology service at UAB Hospital. The group also actively conducts basic science and clinical research activities that have advanced the medical management of liver disease.
For more information on liver disease, transplant and research, visit the UAB Liver Center website.