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HARMEET MALHI: In our hepatobiliary clinic, we really try our best to provide integrated multidisciplinary care to all of our patients.

WILL SANCHEZ: We see patients with abnormal liver tests, very basic things. We see patients with viral hepatitis. We see patients with alcohol-related liver disease. And we see a growing number of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and fatty liver disease and its consequences.

HARMEET MALHI: In addition to history, physical examination, and routine biochemistry, there are imaging tests that we do here that are very helpful to determine the extent or stage of disease and to risk prognosticate patients.

WILL SANCHEZ: We're really lucky that we have a lot of technology on our side, and a lot of expertise, and a lot of tools in the toolbox. With MRI we have a technique that's called elastography or MR elastography, which uses the MR scanner to measure the stiffness of the liver.

HARMEET MALHI: This is an extremely useful test that almost in clinical practice has helped us replace liver biopsy for the management of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. About 25% of the population of the United States has non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, and approximately 5% of the population has the progressive form, or non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, which we abbreviate as NASH. There are several phase III clinical trials for very promising agents in NASH that we're able to offer to interested patients.

WILL SANCHEZ: We recognize that clinical research is about taking care of unmet patient needs. Currently, there's a lot of disorders, including fatty liver disease, which is really common that we don't have perfect therapy for. And in order for us to get to those therapies, we need to bring patients here and give them that opportunity to participate in a therapeutic trial. There's been an explosion in terms of new drugs and new classes of drugs that our colleagues in oncology can use the treatment response to liver cancer with chemotherapy compared to what it was five years ago is markedly different. And it's continuing to improve.

I really think that the way we practice medicine in this digital age is going to change. There is a reality out there in terms of the ability to remotely monitor patients. Wearable devices, other technology is going to increase exponentially. And I really think that what that's going to bring is our ability to take care of patients much more proactively and be able to intervene in someone who has a chronic disease before they deteriorate.

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