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May
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Please see a new report by the Social Market Foundation (SMF), commissioned by IAS and AFS, exploring how governments could address the retailer windfall profits generated by Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP).
As the AHA continues to make the case for introducing MUP in England, this report responds to one of the most frequent objections: that while MUP raises prices and reduces harm, it also boosts retailer profits – £65m in Scotland, and potentially £600m in England – while reducing Treasury alcohol duty receipts by around £300m.
The report considers various options to address this and concludes that the best solution is introducing a Minimum Unit Tax (MUT) alongside MUP – this would introduce a new tax floor on alcohol, similar to the existing minimum excise tax on cigarettes.
Institute of Alcohol Studies
Alcohol Focus Scotland
May
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The Andy Burroughs Young Investigator Award was set up in honour of the late Professor Andrew Burroughs.
Professor Burroughs was an eminent and world renowned Professor of Hepatology and Consultant Physician/Hepatologist and among his many achievements including his wide area of expertise in cirrhosis and portal hypertension and significant contribution to liver Transplantation.
Eligibility
This prize is awarded to young investigators who have contributed to clinical or translational research related to liver transplantation who are in a training non-substantive post. This year 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 BLTG Annual Meeting.
To apply, please send one A4 sheet outlining the research and another A4 sheet listing up to 5 related publications.
NB: one person cannot win the Andy Burroughs Young Investigator Award and the Dame Sheila Sherlock Research Prize in the same year. Nor can they win a second award with the same body of work as the first.
You must be a BASL member to apply.
Please send submissions to conference@basl.org.uk before the deadline of Tuesday 1st July 2025.
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.
May
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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, science or allied health roles 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 (8th-10th October 2025).
To apply, please send one A4 sheet outlining your research and another A4 sheet listing up to 5 related publications.
NB: one person cannot win the Dame Sheila Sherlock Research Prize and Andy Burroughs Young Investigator Award in the same year. Nor can they win a second award with the same body of work as the first.
You must be a BASL member to apply.
Please send submissions to conference@basl.org.uk before the deadline of Tuesday 1st July 2025.
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.
May
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Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham is the home to Europe’s joint largest programme for liver transplantation, performing 200 procedures a year. Approximately 20% of these are for a cancer indication. In addition to Hepatocellular Carcinoma, the long-accepted cancer indication for liver transplantation, we are now developing programmes for new indications of Neuroendocrine Tumours, Colorectal Liver Metastases and Cholangiocarcinoma.
Birmingham has pioneered marginal organ utilisation and improvements in organ preservation allowing expansion of liver transplantation and its indications. We cover a quarter of UK for liver transplantation, and we are the home for the national MDT for patient selection for liver transplantation in NETs. This MDT has assessed 45 patients with successful liver transplantation having taken place in eight patients.
The Fellowship provides advanced training in Hepatology and Transplant Oncology.
- with exposure to liver transplant assessment and pathways.
- collaborations with the leading transplant clinicians from across UK and opportunities to present work at national and international liver and cancer conferences.
The academic work consists of clinical projects related to transplant oncology and basic science projects which will align with the Centre for Liver and Gastrointestinal Research (CLGR) at the University of Birmingham. The CLGR has an international track record in studying liver immunology and liver fibrosis. Previous fellows have undertaken highly successful projects supervised by clinicians and scientists providing excellent experience in a world leading research department.
This work leads to higher degree – MSc/MD.
Interested parties please contact the co-supervisors:
Dr Tahir Shah, Consultant Hepatologist and Head of Birmingham Transplant Oncology Programme at tahir.shah@uhb.nhs.uk
Professor Shishir Shetty, Director of Biomedical Research Centre and Honorary Consultant Hepatologist at s.shetty@bham.ac.uk
Previous Fellows can be contacted at Zaira.Rehman2@uhb.nhs.uk and Rosie Faulkes Rosemary.Faulkes@uhb.nhs.uk
The deadline for enquiries is Friday 27th June 2025.
Apr
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Decompensated cirrhosis: an update of the BSG/BASL admission care bundle.
View the open access paper on the Frontline Gastroenterology website here > Decompensated cirrhosis: an update of the BSG/BASL admission care bundle | Frontline Gastroenterology
Decompensated Cirrhosis Care Bundle - First 6 hour
Download a copy here: Download Decompensated Cirrhosis Care Bundle 13-1-25.docx
NB: if you are using Chrome and the document fails to open click > Here
or contact admin@basl.org.uk to request a word version.
Apr
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The James Lind Alliance survey to prioritise unanswered research questions for liver cirrhosis is now open.
Whether you're a healthcare professional, patient, carer, family member, or researcher, all opinions matter.
What do you think are the priorities for liver cirrhosis research?
We are asking you to select the questions you think are important from a list of 38 possible research questions, then from your long list, choose your top 10 most important questions.
We also ask you to give some information about yourself so that we will know if the survey is reaching a wide audience and to help us target groups wherethere are a low number of responses. You can choose not to answer these questions.
The survey should only take 10 – 15 minutes.
Take the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SMMF6XJ
Closes: May 2nd 2025
Apr
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The European Network for the Study of Cholangiocarcinoma is currently performing a Delphi consensus study on artificial intelligence for biliary tract cancers.
We are seeking clinicians, researchers, patients, industrial representatives, and regulatory professionals to participate in a quick survey to tell us about their perceptions and concerns about AI in this cancer.
Our survey will open on April 9th (first day of Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation annual meeting in USA) and close on May 9th (final day of AMMF Cholangiocarcinoma Charity annual meeting in UK).
Please find the QR code in the poster below and a link to the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CGRMDVS
Mar
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The FSRH Clinical Effectiveness Unit is currently updating their guideline on the safety of contraceptive methods (the UKMEC). The UKMEC considers safety of use of contraceptive methods by individuals with a variety of personal characteristics or medical conditions: UK Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use.
They would like to secure some input from a liver disease expert to advise their Guideline Development Group and they would be very grateful for any help BASL members can give if someone is willing to assist them.
They are seeking a topic expert with a broad knowledge of liver disease who could advise our Guideline Development Group on the following areas:
- Cholestasis
- Viral hepatitis
- Cirrhosis
- Liver tumours
It would involve an initial meeting with their Clinical Director and systematic reviewer to consider the evidence (about an hour) in April/early May. They would also ask the topic expert to attend, if possible, part of their UKMEC Guideline Development Group meeting, which is taking place on the afternoon of Monday 9 June 2025 (for a slot of about 1 hour). They would also ask the expert to review relevant sections of draft text for the guideline subsequently, if it is agreed that revisions are needed.
Participating in this project offers an opportunity to work with leading UK and international experts on national guidance as well as those from other specialties, gain experience in guideline development and be acknowledged for your contribution in the final guideline document.
The topic expert must be a consultant clinician currently working in the specified field. The topic expert must also be in good standing with the relevant professional body and not subject to fitness to practise proceedings. Previous experience in the development of guidelines would be welcome but is not essential.
Please note the role isn’t remunerated.
They would be delighted if one of our members would be able to help.
If you are interested in assisting please contact: ceu@fsrh.org .
Mar
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There are challenges that are unique to female patients as they go through the organ transplant process. A research team at the University of Edinburgh are carrying out a study, funded by NHS Blood and Transplant, to gain a greater understanding of their experiences and needs at different stages of this process and identify where and how improvements can be made to address these.
They are inviting healthcare professionals who treat or support transplant patients to express interest in participating in an online workshop. At the workshop, they will present findings from their qualitative survey on female transplant patients' experiences and needs, asking staff to work together to discuss the findings and identify key priority areas for action to ensure that these are addressed to improve the experience for female patients.
Please click on the link below to find out more about the study and what is involved in taking part:
https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/edinburgh/workshop-for-transplant-staff
Feb
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The British Liver Transplant Group (BLTG) is supporting the UK Organ Donation and Transplant Research Network (UKODTRN) to obtain as broad and complete a picture of all PPIE activity in the transplant field and ask that you complete their survey below.
Meaningful patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) is essential for our research. The UKODTRN is conducting a survey to map PPIE activity and infrastructure across the UK in the field of organ donation and transplantation research to ensure it is accessible, useful and relevant to our research community.
We would love to hear your views. Please click on the link below to complete the survey, which should take no longer than 10 minutes.
Take part in the survey > Here .
Many thanks,
UKODTRN
