PARIS & WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Echosens, a high-technology company offering the FibroScan family of products, joins healthcare leaders worldwide in recognition of International NASH Day, June 12, 2020, a series of virtual events via a global social media campaign, to increase awareness about non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) among the general public, at-risk patients, the medical community, public health authorities and the media. The more severe form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), NASH is an asymptomatic, progressive and burgeoning liver disease that can lead to increased liver-related mortality and morbidity.
“While the COVID-19 pandemic limits locally organized events for this important day, we support advocates who are raising awareness and promoting early intervention to treat fatty liver disease and NASH, which affects more than 115 million people worldwide,” says Dominique Legros, Echosens Group CEO, based at the corporate headquarters and offices in Paris, France. “While the threat of contracting coronavirus weighs heavily, increasingly people are living with advancing liver disease. In these stressful times, liver health matters.”
Estimates show that 357 million people will have NASH globally by 2030. Because NASH symptoms are not obvious in the early stage of the disease, it is often underreported and diagnosed at an advanced critical stage.
Jon Gingrich, CEO, Echosens North America, explains, “The need for point-of-care examinations, monitoring and ongoing assessment of liver fat and stiffness as provided by FibroScan and the FAST Score are critical to helping identify individuals with NASH at risk of progression to cirrhosis.
FibroScan is the most widely studied tool in the world for non-invasive quantitative liver assessment in point of care with over 6,000+ FibroScan system placed worldwide and 1,200 FibroScan systems placed in healthcare settings across the United States – including physician offices, diagnostic centers and hospitals. It is expected that FibroScan examinations will be performed as a routine part of patient management.”
Furthermore, NAFLD and NASH are major risk factors for concurrent conditions: more than 70% of patients are obese, up to 75% have Type 2 diabetes, and 20-80% have hyperlipidemia. Unchecked, NASH may lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver transplant.
Douglas Dieterich, M.D., director of the Institute for Liver Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System, in collaboration with NASHNET, a global Centers of Excellence Network represented by leading healthcare systems in collaboration with The Kinetix Group, states, “International NASH Day calls for unity, collaboration, innovation, best practice sharing and the development of real-world evidence to create standardization and systematization of care models that address major NAFLD/NASH gaps to battle this growing epidemic.”
About Echosens
Pioneer in its field, Echosens significantly changed the practice of liver diagnosis with FibroScan®, the first non-invasive solution to assess and monitor patients with chronic liver disease. FibroScan® is recognized worldwide as the reference for non-invasive liver fibrosis and liver steatosis assessment with more than 2,500+ peer reviewed publications and 40+ international guidelines recommendations. Echosens has made FibroScan® available in over 100+ countries enabling millions of liver examinations worldwide. www.echosens.com
About NASHNET
NASHNET, a Kinetix Group-led network founded in 2017, aims to improve non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) care delivery by promoting collaboration, innovation, best practice sharing, and the development of real-world evidence across leading delivery systems. NASHNET aims to create standardization and systematization of care models that address major NAFLD/NASH gaps including patient identification and stratification, referrals and intervention methodologies, care coordination processes, and patient and provider education from primary care through hepatology.
