S5 - E26.4 - Looking Back at #TLM2024 - Patient Advocacy and Patient-Centric Trials

Surfing the MASH Tsunami

In this episode, Naim Alkhouri, Mike Betel, Michelle Long and Jeff McIntyre join Jörn Schattenberg and Roger Green to look back at The Liver Meeting 2024. This conversation considers the role of patient advocacy in replacing biopsy in clinical trials with NITs and reviews a session on the foundational principles for patien-centric clinical trials.
This conversation picks up at the end of Michelle's discussion of the FDA Corner session. Jeff starts by identifying this specific issue - replacing biopsy in clinical trials with NITs - as a place topic on which he believes patients must play a pivotal role in this discussion. He notes that patient advocacy has been involved already but anticipates this role will grow as the discussion progresses. After Michelle agrees how vital this issue is for patients and notes that manufacturers are
"taking on this increased workload" for that reason, Jeff shares what he considers the key issue: FDA is not only a scientific agency but also a political one, and patients can serve as the "tip of the spear" toward political ends here.
Mike describes a poster he presented (and was lead co-author), titled Patient Voice in MASH Initiatives: Foundational Principles for the Conduct of Patient-Centric MASH Research. He lists the groups participating in this broad effort and describes the goal as "reimagin[ing] clinical trials for MASH and how they're designed and delivered... focusing on what matters the most for patients." The outcomes were a set of patient-centric principles:

• Transparency in explaining trial-related issues. Mike gave the example of placebos, how they are used, and what happens to a patient in the placebo cohort at the end of the trial.
• "Whole person focus," including not only the medical issues but also emotional and practical issues that can emerge throughout the trial as patients' needs and life situations change.
• "Patients as partners," treating them as collaborators instead of subjects.
• Family and caregiver awareness, noting how deeply involved family members are through the trial process.
• Responsiveness to patient needs through surveys and checkpoints throughout the process.

Mike closed his comments by stating that all these points "put the patient at the center of the process," which meant considering not only diversity and inclusiveness in the trial population but also knowing and acting on what diversity will be in the context of these five principles.
Speaking from their perspectives as researchers, Michelle and Jörn were both highly supportive of the principles (Michelle called them "fantastic.") Jörn noted that the entire trial process starts with patient-centricity since the research is inherently designed to benefit patients.