What are Fibroscans?

Fibroscans are used to help measure liver inflammation, helping assess the level of liver scarring (fibrosis), and monitor the overall health of the liver. They are quick and painless; a small device produces high-frequency sound waves, which create an image of inside your liver, without breaking your skin or entering your body. Fibroscans are primarily used to monitor/screen liver diseases, assess cirrhosis and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment.

What impact have Fibroscans had within drug and alcohol health services?

In this episode of the fibroscan podcast, Mark Prescott, Clinical Lead for Inclusion’s One Recovery Bucks service, and Jade Groves, Health and Wellbeing Nurse Specialist, spoke with Deanne Burch, Lead for Hep C U Later in a podcast, which discussed the impact of using Fibroscans within community drug and alcohol services, such as One Recovery Bucks.

Introducing fibroscans within our community and drug services, such as One Recovery Bucks (ORB), has had a multitude of benefits for both patients and healthcare professionals.

Being able to offer ‘fast track access’ to patients is one of the main benefits. Hosting fibroscans in our services such as ORB, targets patients with a higher likelihood of having Fibrosis through alcohol and drug consumption. This encourages Fibrosis to be detected and intervened early, and leads to an earlier stage of treatment for patients. Jade says that because of this, she hopes that the presentations of cirrhosis will decrease because of the opportunity to get there earlier.

They achieved this by placing priority on those who are at most risk first, for example, high risk alcohol clients. Additionally, partnerships with our Hep C U Later services meant services could monitor patients with positive Hep C results as well. From the date the podcast was released, Jade reports 84 scans, with 20% of those scans resulting in referrals. A couple of these scans showing as Cirrhotic, that was previously unknown before the scan.

Increasing accessibility of scans has meant that patients can take scans during their regular appointments. Jade reports that patients are more likely to accept a scan because of the convenience and eagerness to do it ‘all in one’. Stigma is also discussed as a main factor to why 1 in 3 patients are too scared to book an appointment. Offering scans during check-ups allows individuals either peace of mind, or the help they need, without feeling excess pressure to book a separate appointment.

Our ORB services welcomed in healthcare professionals to show what our drug and alcohol services can really do. Healthcare professionals were invited into our clinics, to observe how we operate the scans and facilitate the clinic. This encourages a skill swap, as these professionals can then improve access to scanning in other areas as well, whilst also tackling stigma.

ORB additionally supported Hampshire clinics too, sharing learnings internally, whilst enhancing the services Inclusion is providing. The introduction of fibroscans has “Raised the knowledge of One Recovery Bucks & drug and alcohol services to know that, actually, we can be really effective in developing healthcare for people locally” Mark says. He explains that the introduction of fibroscans have ‘opened avenues’ and allowed our drug services to showcase their skillsets. By doing so, this will allow us to reach areas where people accessing our services haven’t been able to before.

Overall, introducing fibroscans have warranted positive feedback for our clinics, with patients being ‘pleasantly surprised’. Mark concludes the podcast with “Drug and alcohol is not their be all and end all.  It’s not the only thing that defines them at all.  They’ve got lots of other things”, circling back to how introducing fibroscans within check-ups has opened up more access and opportunity within our services.

Listen to the podcast by clicking the video below.