Increase the number of liver transplants by facing the challenge of emerging from the Covid emergency. And do it also with new tools, from telemedicine to a new portal that selects candidates for the operation in a simple and appropriate way. The hepatologist of the Sapienza University of Rome-Policlinico Umberto I explains this in an interview with time.news Salute, Stefano Ginanni Corradini. “Is called eReferral and it is a web portal that we have developed together with the University of Tor Vergata and the Innovo consortium, it is easily used by all doctors who want to refer a patient for an evaluation for a liver transplant “, underlines the specialist in a video interview broadcast on ‘Doctor’s Life, the first medical-scientific information television channel dedicated to doctors and pharmacists, published by time.news Salute.
“The doctor enters eReferral fills in a few mandatory fields concerning himself and the patient and sends a minimum of clinical indication that is necessary to a specialist ‘reviewer’ of the transplant center to judge whether the visit is urgent or if it can be included in the normal agenda or, and this is the important part of the portal, a third possibility – warns the hepatologist – That is, that the clinical documentation is not sufficient or not updated, so to avoid carrying out a visit with old clinical documentation, the doctor through a chat to update it. Then there is the fourth option, that the visit should not be done, that is, that it is inappropriate. This happens in all fields, in fact it may happen that the specialist visit could also be avoided. slots for other visits and avoid making unnecessary consultations and having free seats “.
But who can access the portal? “Any doctor dealing with a patient with chronic liver disease, the most frequent are liver cirrhosis and primary cancer. The usefulness of the site is that there are information links that also explain within these types what is the timing to send the patient who could be a candidate for transplantation “.
The results obtained with the new medical web portal ‘eReferral LT ”- electronic Referral Liver Transplantation’ have been published in the journal ‘Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology’. The study involved a group of Sapienza researchers, belonging to the Department of Translational and Precision Medicine, to the Department of General and Specialized Surgery ‘P. Stefanoini’ and to the Umberto I Hospital, in collaboration with the Hepatology and Transplant Center of liver of the University of Tor Vergata and with Consorzio Innovo. “The use of the eReferral LT portal has alleviated the problem of low referral rate and too late referral of potential candidates, mainly with liver cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma, to liver transplant centers”, highlight the study results.
The portal will also help in the post-pandemic recovery, but how has the impact of the Covid emergency weighed on transplants and hepatological treatments? “Undoubtedly, the Covid emergency has negatively impacted both liver transplants and liver pathologies for different reasons, both direct and indirect. Many departments have been reconverted, a lot of energy has been directed towards Covid both for hospitals and for for outpatient activities. For liver transplantation there was an impact on donors who decreased by about 20-25% in the worst phase – recalls the hepatologist – The reasons are also due to the impact on the organization that there is behind the transplants. Currently, however, the situation is much improved both for donations and the availability of the entire transplant machine to welcome potential candidates to evaluate them and put them on the waiting list and perform the transplant “.
Do we need to make an extra effort to get out of the Covid emergency and return to normal activities? “We are trying to make up for lost time, some outpatient visits that could not be performed now we are trying to perform them also using the telemedicine that, paradoxically, Covid has made us know better and use more. It is very useful”.