Wessels DH, Rosenberg Z. Awareness of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and treatment guidelines: What are physicians telling us? World J Hepatol 2021; 13(2): 233-241 [PMID: 33708352 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v13.i2.233]
Corresponding Author of This Article
David Hermanus Wessels, MBChB, Chief Doctor, Medical Office, A.E.S., Sandringham House Ackhurst Park Foxhole Road, Chorley PR7 1NY, Lancashire, United Kingdom. dawie.wessels@globalaes.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Evidence-Based Medicine
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Hepatol. Feb 27, 2021; 13(2): 233-241 Published online Feb 27, 2021. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v13.i2.233
Awareness of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and treatment guidelines: What are physicians telling us?
David Hermanus Wessels, Zeil Rosenberg
David Hermanus Wessels, Medical Office, A.E.S., Chorley PR7 1NY, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Zeil Rosenberg, Chief Medical Office, Accelerated Enrollment Solutions, Horsham, PA 19044, United States
Author contributions: All authors editing of this paper, and approved the final version of this study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. Wessels is an employee of AES, a clinical trials site management organization conducting clinical studies on NASH, which provided funding for this work. No other conflicts are reported.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: David Hermanus Wessels, MBChB, Chief Doctor, Medical Office, A.E.S., Sandringham House Ackhurst Park Foxhole Road, Chorley PR7 1NY, Lancashire, United Kingdom. dawie.wessels@globalaes.com
Received: November 23, 2020 Peer-review started: November 23, 2020 First decision: December 7, 2020 Revised: December 18, 2020 Accepted: December 28, 2020 Article in press: December 28, 2020 Published online: February 27, 2021 Processing time: 94 Days and 1.2 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Primary care physician knowledge of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) diagnostics guidelines is key for appropriate patient management. We conducted a national online survey of physicians regarding their awareness of NASH guidelines. Endocrinologists and primary care physicians were significantly less likely than gastroenterologists to understand the differences between NASH and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, as well as undertake diagnostic testing and necessary referrals for NASH. Only 18% of primary care physicians and 30% of endocrinologists were familiar with common indices such as the Fibrosis-4 score. Better education of primary care physicians about NASH could also serve as one way to identify candidates for important NASH clinical trials.
