GESA president Associate Professor Simone Strasser
The new president of GESA has called on members to step up and contribute to the profession beyond their clinical roles.
Speaking to the limbic at AGW 2019, Associate Professor Simone Strasser said she plans to continue with many of the previous board’s key priority areas, which include advocacy, education and government relations.
She also encouraged members to contribute their expertise and time to the broader community as GESA looked to position itself as the “go-to organisation” for everything related to gastrointestinal and liver disease.
“I really challenge people with that as I think it’s important. We are learning that there is a lot we can do as a professional group, particularly in advocacy, particularly working with government and really using those opportunities. We need to be engaged in processes at an early stage – making sure that we are the go-to organisation.”
Her comment references the fact that GESA somehow found it didn’t have a seat at the table during the development of the Australian Government’s 3rd National Hepatitis B Strategy.
“That can’t happen. We are the care providers and education providers in hepatitis, liver cancer, fatty liver disease, IBD, luminal disease and other GI health issues. So we have to be the key organisation.”
To help in the branding effort, the Australian Liver Association, Australian IBD Association and the Australian Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Association have been clearly rebadged as GESA faculties.
“It hasn’t changed the enthusiasm, the energy, the outputs. It’s just making sure no one is confused that GESA is the peak body for all GI and liver disorders in Australia.”
She said gaps in service delivery in rural and remote Australia and in Indigenous communities had been a focus at AGW, which included a presentation from the RFDS.
“…and there is a lot we can do organisationally to support them, again, even in providing experts to provide education in those communities either to health professionals or consumers themselves.”
She said membership of the Young GESA group was growing rapidly and that they had specifically committed to investigating their contribution to rural and remote issues.
“We heard from this meeting that there is no gastroenterologist or trainee of Indigenous background in Australia despite the fact there are now increasing numbers of Indigenous people in medical training and who have graduated in medicine.”
While responsibility for training rests with the RACP, she said there was a lot of commitment from GESA and specialists to support people coming through training and into practice.
Runs on the board
Associate Professor Strasser, from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the University of Sydney, said amongst the strengths she brings to the position was a lot of experience on the GESA board in various capacities.
“I first came on the board in 2005 and been on and off depending on what age the children were and their needs. Even before I was on board I was working on other committees within the society so I have got a lot of experience across this.”
“In my clinical work I am a hepatologist and a transplant hepatologist at that, with a big interest in liver cancer and other liver diseases, but I am still a colonoscopist one day a week and an endoscopist and I teach and I am involved across all facets of what our Society is doing.”
“I also have engagement with external societies and foundations as well. So it’s really bringing all that together and I’m very excited about the opportunity to bring my knowledge of this Society but also my knowledge of other organisations together to really further our GESA strategy.”
She said hepatitis C has been a big win for the profession and for GESA.
“It is an area that is changing very quickly and the organisation has had an absolutely key role in leading the Australian Hepatitis C Consensus and getting drugs for hepatitis C introduced and onto the PBS along with our partners in that, and really having a massive impact on hepatitis C in this country so that now a third of patients living with HCV have been treated and are now cured.”
“We have seen a marked reduction in liver transplantation for hepatitis C but not yet seen a big impact on cancer due to HCV but we expect to see that in the next few years. In terms of major events that have happened in our space, hepatitis is the big win.”
However one of the biggest challenges was liver cancer. As the most rapidly rising cause of cancer deaths, GESA’s advocacy around primary liver cancer was absolutely critical.
She said awareness around obesity and metabolic liver disease as an increasing cause of liver failure and liver cancer was under recognised.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do to get community awareness, government awareness and to get interventions to turn this enormous tide of liver disease around before it hits us.”
“So it’s not on the agenda of government at the moment and it is an absolutely critical area of health that is going to impact the Australian community. They hear about diabetes, they hear about heart disease but the liver disease burden is enormous.”
“It’s not on the priorities of the minister and it’s not on the priority of the Australian public as well but they get shocked when they are diagnosed with liver disease due to lifestyle factors.”
She said she was disappointed second line drugs for liver cancer had just been rejected for reimbursement “yet we know …they have an incredibly important part in keeping patients alive with a good quality of life.”
“We have two first line drugs now on the PBS, we’ve got three second line drugs approved but not on the PBS so making sure that we really advocate in that area for our patients’ care is critically important as well.”
She said the Australian National Liver Cancer Collaborative, led by GESA and in conjunction with the Liver Foundation, was bringing together multiple interest groups across the country that were working in liver cancer.
“It’s a key advocacy area and we need to bring people together to the same goal and not have different silos duplicating or triplicating efforts. There is nothing to be gained in that.”