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Next week, 7,000+ hepatology stakeholders will convene in Milano, Italy, to consume 2,000+ posters and presentations, including an extensive set of MASLD studies, at EASL Congress 2024. EASL Secretary General Aleksander Krag, Hannes Hagstrom, and Michelle Long join Jörn Schattenberg and Roger Green to preview the program.

00:00:00 - Surf's Up: Season 5 Episode 17
Standard lead-in, including quotes from panelists.

00:02:40 - Introduction
Roger describes the structure of this episode.

00:04:21 - Groundbreaker 
Good personal and professional news from the panelists. 

00:08:04 - A 10,000m look at the EASL Congress 2024
Aleksander discusses the preparation that has gone into this Congress, resulting in 2,000 accepted abstracts presented in  "almost 300 different types of sessions" from 450 faculty members. Many focus on the range of key MASLD issues.

Hannes commends the design, which prominently positions young researchers. 
Michelle says the networking sessions that EASL is sponsoring around the large consortia and other projects " really speak to how open this community is to exploring different ideas and getting people together."

00:21:01 - Michelle praises abstract quality and selects abstracts for colleagues to review
Michelle advises, "Don't sleep on the abstracts;" she quickly highlighted 75 of interest.  She recommends poster sessions as a place to dig into what lies behind some pivotal pieces of research. 

Roger invites Michelle to choose one abstract from her 75 that have her fellow panelists as authors, so that the three can describe their work. 

Aleksander and Hannes both choose to describe the work their groups did on the various abstracts, but both describe methods and overall benefits. 

00:26:41 - Jörn Schattenberg joins panel
As Hannes makes his statement, Jörn joins the podcast. He starts by discussing a panel  Hannes will chair on the future of hepatology at which Jörn's will focus on AI. Hannes shares his excitement about a session that looks to take a peak into the future.

Jörn describes the abstract Michelle selects for him as a Big Data study of "real-world" U.S. patients, which he sees as having great benefit compared to looking at the patients he treats.  

00:30:25 - Panelists each choose an abstract to discuss
Roger asks each panelist to discuss an abstract. Aleksander and Hannes each describe Big Data studies, but these are quite different. Aleksander's relies on massive computing power to analyze 12 levels of omics data for 900 patients,  while Hannes's two are based on 860,000 residents of Stockholm who received a liver test between 2010 and 2022. 

One study from Hannes demonstrated that five simple parameters proved far more accurate than FIB-4 in assessing risk. To MIchelle, "a risk-based view of this disease makes a lot of sense." Aleksander and Roger concur that such an approach will probably yield a far more efficient use of resources. 

Jörn discusses a drug development paper reporting on a Phase 2a trial of a transglutaminase inhibitor. Michelle mentions an embargoed late breaker abstract that she describes as a "really good use" of a big data set from an array of Novo Nordisk trials.

00:48:31 - Closing comments and wrap-ups to discuss
Roger asks each panelist for a "big picture" lesson they will take from Milano. Closing comments from the panelists vary in scope and focus but share themes that have emerged throughout the discussion.

00:54:55 - Question of the Week  
This week's question of the week asks which sources of insight will drive the next generation of MASLD research.

00:55:44 - Business Report  
This week's news on how SurfingMASH will cover the EASL Congress, our new private community, some