Advocacy & Awareness Hepatitis B Action and Advocacy

One of the foremost goals of the THINK B program is to take a leading role in increasing advocacy efforts around hepatitis B. Under the medical leadership of doctors Anna Lok and Eddie Cheung, the American Liver Foundation (ALF) has led community and state efforts to increase hepatitis B visibility among policy-makers in public health and government.

THINK B Leadership Conference

In 2004, ALF convened a Leadership Conference on "Hepatitis B Prevention and Management in Asian Americans."

More than 65 key opinion leaders attended the three-day conference, including clinicians, community leaders, and representatives from national and community-based organizations and pharmaceutical firms. Led by conference co-chairs Dr. Eddie C. Cheung of the University of California, Davis, and Dr. Anna Lok of the University of Michigan, the conference convened a faculty of experts in hepatitis B in the Asian American community and emphasized the importance of outreach to primary care physicians and physician extenders to better inform them of the availability of effective anti-HBV treatment and the importance of screening.

Updating the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)

As part of a national advocacy strategy, the program leaders have been instrumental in driving recommendations to ACIP with the help of its partners in the medical and public health community. They have drafted and submitted collective recommendations to the CDC's Immunization Practices for HBV infection that included screening, estimated prevalence of the disease in the U.S., vaccination practices, and epidemiology updates on HBV. The THINK B leadership team is now rigorously working toward ensuring that recommendations are approved and implemented.

Lobbying 'The Hill'

ALF also held its annual Hill Day in April where it put forth legislative recommendations and successfully lobbied Capitol Hill on issues related to liver disease. As a result of the Foundation's efforts, critical bill report language targeting hepatitis B was included in key pieces of legislation, and the organization successfully urged lawmakers to increase funding for and and drive greater attention to hepatitis B for a greater and improved impact on at-risk patients and physicians treating the disease.