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Each year BASL presents the Dame Sheila Sherlock research prize, one of the highlights of the annual meeting. This prize is awarded annually to recognise the enormous contribution of Dame Sheila Sherlock to the development of Hepatology as a discipline in its own right.

Dame Sheila was involved in the foundation of the British Liver Club in 1961, which subsequently evolved into The British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL). She was one of our past presidents and the first recipient of The BASL Distinguished Service Award.

Eligibility
In keeping with Dame Sheila’s enthusiasm for fostering young researchers, this eponymous research prize is awarded to young investigators without substantive posts in either medicine or science for their research contributions in the field of hepatology. The winner will receive free registration to the meeting, an award and a prize of £1,000 and an invite to deliver the prize lecture and present their research at the BASL Annual Meeting.

To apply, please send one A4 sheet outlining your research and another A4 sheet listing up to 5 related publications.

Please send submissions to steve@basl.org.uk before the deadline of Midday on Monday 1st August 2022.

You must be a BASL member to apply.

The BASL Annual Meeting Is taking place from 20th-23rd September at the Queen's Hotel in Leeds - Early Bird registration closes 31st July. Read more about registering > here .

There are a number of opportunities coming up for members to serve on the BASL committee so please get involved and help to shape the future of BASL.

Detailed below are the elected committee posts that are coming to the end of tenure in September 2022:

• President Elect - elected by the membership. The President is one of three principal officers of the Association. The post holder will shadow the BASL President from October 2022, taking up the role of President at the end of the Business Meeting of the Association in September 2023. The President is the Chairman of the Association and serves for two years. The President will Chair the annual Scientific Meeting and the meetings of the Governing Board.

• Treasurer – elected by the membership. The Treasurer is one of three principal officers of the Association. The post holder can serve for up to three years and may be re-elected once.
Read more about this post here:
Download BASL Committee Posts_Information June 22.pdf

NB: The President, Secretary and Treasurer post holders must have different Institutional affiliation within the UK.

• Education & Training Committee Councillor – elected by the membership. The post holder will serve for a period of four years and may be re-elected once. There are two Educational and Training Councillor’s on the Governing Board and members elect one new Councillor every two years. The post holders are responsible for educational tasks as defined by the Governing Board, such as running the BASL School of Hepatology.

• BLTG Chair - elected by the membership. The post holder will serve for a period of up to three years and may be re-elected once.
Read more about this post here:
Download BASL Committee Posts_Information June 22.pdf

• BLNA Chair - elected by membership. The post holder will serve for a period of up to three years and may be re-elected once. The BLNA is commissioned by the Governing Board to promote education of nurses with regard to liver diseases and their management.

• Services Lead - elected by the membership. The post holder will serve for a period of up to three years and may be re-elected once. The Services Lead supports the development and implementation of Clinical Standards and the provision of Clinical Services, including preparation and delivery of advice to national health authorities concerning liver diseases.
Read more about this post here:
Download BASL Committee Posts_Information June 22.pdf

• Scientist Representative - elected by the membership. The postholder will serve for a period of up to three years and may be re-elected once. The post holder is responsible for the organisation and programme for the annual Basic Science Retreat meeting.

NB: all of the above posts, with the exception of President Elect, shall be registered with Companies House in the UK as a Director of BASL and registered with the Charities Commission as a Trustee.

BASL is committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of its work. It is actively promoting equal opportunities and access for all our members regardless of their background. We would, therefore, encourage you to consider joining the BASL committee to help to shape the future of BASL and increase our inclusivity/inclusiveness.

Nomination Process

Please send your nominations, clearly stating the position that your nomination is for, to the BASL Secretariat at judy@basl.org.uk by the deadline of 09:00hrs Tuesday 19th July 2022.

Candidates wishing to be considered for nomination must be a member of BASL and will require one BASL member to propose them and a second BASL member to confirm their suitability for the role in writing. (Proposing and seconding of candidates can be done by email.)

If more than one candidate is nominated for a particular post the Secretariat will arrange for an election of all members. Should an election need to take place the Secretariat will contact the candidates and request a personal statement. The statement should contain no more than 300 words and permission will be requested to share the personal statements with the BASL membership. (Personal statements are intended for this purpose only.)

The successful candidate will be elected by a simple majority of those members voting.

Newly elected committee members will be announced at the next Business Meeting of the Association that is being held during the BASL Annual Meeting in Leeds from 20th- 23rd September 2022, and join the committee thereafter.

If you need any more information, please do not hesitate to contact judy@basl.org.uk .

We look forward to hearing from you.

Applications are invited from any UK Hepatology SpR to be the Trainee representative on the Hepatology National Specialty Group of the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) for a term of two years.

This is an excellent opportunity to learn about clinical trials feasibility and delivery, as well as gain valuable experience in research leadership. The Trainee will join the 15 Local CRN (LCRN) Leads on the Group and will work with/obtain mentorship from the LCRN Lead for his/her geographic region of work. Prior experience/involvement in clinical studies on the UKCRN Portfolio is desirable, as is a desire to work in the future as a Principal Investigator and potentially take on a role in the CRN. The Trainee member will also be expected to take an interest in one of the Group's themes (Industry studies, patient and public involvement [PPI], Communications).

Applications should take the form of a research CV and a maximum 200 word description of the reason(s) for applying and expected individual gains.

Please send applications and queries to crnspecialtyclustera@nihr.ac.uk by 5pm Friday 8th July 2022.

Overview

The BSG/BASL NAFLD special interest group has developed a series of evidence-based quality standard recommendations, with the aim of improving the care of people with NAFLD. It is known that NAFLD is common, affecting 25% of the UK population and management of the condition is variable. Individuals with NAFLD have an increased risk of overall mortality compared with the general population, and common causes of death include cardiovascular disease, malignancy and liver-related complications. A holistic approach is therefore needed to address liver disease, as well as cardio-metabolic risk factors.

The recommendations were developed using a modified Delphi process by a multidisciplinary group of 29 individuals from all disciplines involved in the management of people with NAFLD, and cover: 1. Management of people with, or at risk of, NAFLD before the gastroenterology or liver clinic; 2. Assessment and investigations in secondary care; 3. Management in secondary care. We have also developed 11 auditable key performance indicators (KPIs) to enable service to review the care of their patients and benchmark their practice.

Manuscript and summary documents

The full manuscript can be found here https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468125322000619?dgcid=author. (Free access to the manuscript will be available for 50 days from Friday 28 April 2022.)

Click here for the  Download Summary of the NAFLD quality standard recommendations for website_l.pdf

Following a systematic audit of the National Nominating Organisations (NNOs) in 2021 and a careful review of the roles of the large numbers of organisations who have historically been involved in nomination and citation processes, the Advisory Committee on Clinical Impact Awards (ACCIA) has reduced the number of recognised NNOs and overall number of ranking places for 2022.

Unfortunately BASL has not been accredited as an NNO by the ACCIA. The full list of accredited NNOs can be found on the ACCIA website > Here