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Population Management of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

With the enormous burden of NAFLD on the rise, quality care for patients warrants resource-adaptive population health management strategies.
Federal Practitioner. 2019 February;36(2)a:72-82
February 12, 2019|Federal Practitioner
Puneet Puri, MD;Michael Fuchs, MD, PhD
Author and Disclosure Information

Puneet Puri is Medical Director of the Metabolic Liver Disease Clinic, and Michael Fuchs is Chief of Hepatology and Liver Transplantation, both at Hunter Holmes McGuire VAMC in Richmond, Virginia. Puneet Puri is an Associate Professor of Medicine, and Michael Fuchs is a Professor of Medicine, both at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Correspondence: Michael Fuchs (michael .fuchs2@va.gov)

Author disclosures
The authors report no actual or potential conflicts of interest with regard to this article.

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Federal Practitioner, Frontline Medical Communications Inc., the US Government, or any of its agencies. This article may discuss unlabeled or investigational use of certain drugs. Please review the complete prescribing information for specific drugs or drug combinations—including indications, contraindications, warnings, and adverse effects—before administering pharmacologic therapy to patients.

Patient-Centered Care

At present the narrow focus of VHA specialty outpatient clinics associated with time constraints of providers and gaps in NAFLD awareness clearly does not address the complex metabolic needs of veterans with NAFLD. This is in striking contrast to the comprehensive care offered to patients with cancer. To overcome these limitations, new care delivery models need to be explored. At first it seems attractive to embed NAFLD patient care geographically into a hepatology clinic with the potential advantages of improving volume and timeliness of referral and reinforcing communication among specialty providers while maximizing convenience for patients. However, this is resource intensive not only concerning clinic space, but also in terms of staffing clinics with specialty providers.

Patient-centered care for veterans with NAFLD seems to be best organized around a comprehensive NAFLD clinic with access to specialized diagnostics and knowledge in day-to-day NAFLD management. This evolving care concept has been developed already for patients with liver cirrhosis and inflammatory bowel disease and considers NAFLD a chronic disease that cannot be addressed sufficiently by providing episodic care.55,56 The development of comprehensive NAFLD care can build on the great success of the Hepatitis Innovation Team Collaborative that employed lean management strategies with local and regional teams to facilitate efforts to make chronic hepatitis C virus a rare disease in the VHA.57

NAFLD Care Team

Given the central role of the liver and gastrointestinal tract in the field of nutrition, knowledge of the pathophysiology of the liver and digestive tract as well as emerging therapeutic options offered via metabolic endoscopy uniquely positions the hepatologist/gastroenterologist to take the lead in managing NAFLD. Treating NAFLD is best accomplished when the specialist partners with other health care providers who have expertise in the nutritional, behavioral, and physical activity aspects of treatment. The composition of the NAFLD care team and the roles that different providers fulfill can vary depending on the clinical setting; however, the hepatologist/gastroenterologist is best suited to lead the team, or alternatively, this role can be fulfilled by a provider with liver disease expertise.

Based on experiences from the United Kingdom, the minimum staffing of a NAFLD clinic should include a physician and nurse practitioner who has expertise in managing patients with chronic liver disease, a registered nurse, a dietitian, and a clinical pharmacy specialist (CPS).58 With coexistent diseases common and many veterans who have > 5 prescribed medications, risk of polypharmacy and adverse drug reactions are a concern, particularly since adherence in patients with chronic diseases has been reported to be as low as 43%.59-61 Risk of medication errors and serious adverse effects are magnified by difficulties with patient adherence, medication interactions, and potential need for frequent dose adjustments, particularly when on a weight-loss diet.

Without doubt, comprehensive medication management, offered by a highly trained CPS with independent prescriptive authority occurring while the veteran is in the NAFLD clinic, is highly desirable. Establishing a functional statement and care coordination agreement could describe the role of the CPS as a member of the NAFLD provider team. 

In addition to the core NAFLD care team, it would be desirable to have available a mental health provider, social worker, and physical therapist. In case the core provider team does not include a CPS, then a specialist covering comorbidity management would be needed (Figure 3). The success of this NAFLD care team depends among other aspects on the successful development of a personalized intervention plan reached by consensus of the team members and using standardized protocols and care pathways.

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