Iowa Health’s Center for Liver Disease to Expand

Until this year, Iowans needing treatment for various types of liver diseases had just one in-state center available to them, at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. That changed in January when Iowa Health-Des Moines established the Center for Liver Disease at Iowa Methodist Medical Center.

Since then, the center’s director, Dr. Shahid Habib, has seen 40 to 50 new patients each month, and plans to hire additional practitioners later this year. Iowa Healths long-term goal is to establish a liver transplant center at Iowa Methodist.

Because patients with liver diseases typically require more extensive treatment and follow-up than most gastroenterology patients, few doctors in that specialty have an interest in treating them, Habib said.

“They are more sick people, so they are more time-consuming,” he said. Among the most serious diseases he deals with are various types of viral hepatitis, some of which can be eradicated in only 30 to 50 percent of cases. One of the most prevalent, though less serious, liver conditions is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition related to obesity that afflicts about 21 percent of Americans to some extent.

Affiliated with Habib are Dr. Gary Wilson and Dr. Cass Franklin, both boardcertified surgeons with advanced fellowship training in multiorgan transplantation. The center is also staffed with three registered nurses, a certified medical assistant, a social worker, a psychologist and three administrative staff members.

“We have a very integrated team,” Habib said. “So in terms of staffing, we have a good number of people available. In terms of demand, we have a plan to expand in the next few more months with more physicians and nurse practitioners.”

Iowa Health’s competitor, Mercy Medical Center-Des Moines, has specialists who provide liver disease treatment, but there are no immediate plans to have a dedicated center at this time, spokesman Gregg Lagan said.

Habib, a board-certified physican who completed his training at the University of Pittsburgh, is working with his alma mater on clinical research involving liver patients in Iowa. A clinical trial is now being established for kidney transplant candidates who are infected with the hepatitis C virus, which must be treated prior to the transplantation to reduce the risk of the treatment adversely affecting the organ.

The center also works closely with the Iowa Department of Public Health’s hepatitis task force in prevention and identification of those at risk for the disease.

The center is making a difference for patients and their families, Habib said.

Before the center was established, treatment for liver patients in Central Iowa was substandard, he said. “Iowa Health has taken the initiative to establish this center, and we are working to serve these patients and the community.”

Copyright Business Publications Incorporated Jul 11, 2005