Overcoming Trial Recruitment Challenges In NASH Using De-Identified Patient Linking

Background

Recruiting patients for Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) trials can be a challenge. Diagnosis and staging require a combination of lab test results combined to create a Fibrosis-4 score (FIB-4) and specialized MRI and ultrasound liver imaging to measure hepatic steatosis, and liver stiffness. The challenge is that most clinical trial sites do not have access to both blood serum labs and the proper liver imaging capabilities. These data are often collected by labs on the one hand and specialized imaging organizations on the other.