S5 - E3.4 - Discussing MASLD With Patients: MASH Is Not "Just A Little Fat" Any More

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This conversation focuses on how the new MASLD nomenclature might improve providers' explanations of MASH to patients. Louise Campbell describes new opportunities, while Meena Bansal describes how focusing on metabolism provides a richer opportunity for providers to explain to MASH patients why fat on the liver matters.

Louise Campbell starts this conversation by discussing a new NHS program providing primary care centers with VCTE units they can use to screen patients for MASLD and MASH. She points out that this will provide a unique opportunity to present the new MASLD nomenclature to primary care and allied health providers in a way that connects immediately to diagnosing patients and educating them properly about their disease. She notes that at the patient level, the discussion is still likely to focus on excess fat on the liver but presents the idea of "fat" in a less stigmatizing way.

Meena Bansal focuses more specifically on exactly how provider-patient conversations might change. For years, she suggests, physicians have written "hepatic steatosis" on patient charts, but then told patients they "just have a little fat on the liver." In her view, the new nomenclature will take the word "just" out of the discussion and present the "little fat on the liver" as part of a metabolic syndrome that requires treatment. She goes on to mention another source of excitement: the ability to consider MetALD patients as part of the same MASLD community and add them to Mt. Sinai's longitudinal patient registry, which will likely become a rich source of MetALD data.
Earlier in the episode, Jeff Lazarus had mentioned his excitement at the growing role and publicity for the "Healthy Livers, Healthy Lives" initiative. Louise notes that increasing focus on liver awareness and awareness of the importance of liver health, as discussed in Season 5 Episode 2, aligns neatly with Meena's disease description and the new communication opportunities for new physician and allied health specialties.