Digital Health Interventions in the Management of MASLD

Globally, the use of digital health interventions (DHIs) is expanding, along with growing scientific evidence of their effectiveness to help in caring for people with or at risk of liver diseases, such as metabolic dysfunction associated liver disease and metabolic dysfunction associated steatohepatitis. However, this shift in caregiving is not uniform among all healthcare providers.

For instance, a survey showed that despite a high level of familiarity with DHIs among physicians, most of them do not recommend these tools for patient care management. In the survey, it was seen that out of 295 participant physicians, 56% of physicians never recommend DHIs to their patients. It was also seen that although, 91% of the physicians understood the functioning of DHIs, only 25% of them received DHI education/training. Additionally, 51% of the participant commented that they will recommend DHIs to their patients if they have evidence of their utility.

When we look at artificial intelligence (AI), it has several applications in MASLD, or liver disease in general, such as: Potential to augment the exploitation of massive multiple parametric data; Creating models that enable machines to learn from data, recognize patterns, make decisions and solve complex problems; Enhance accuracy compared to traditional methods; Personalized clinical decisions for patients; Streamline patient care.

However, there are some challenges in applying AI, such as: Need for good quality datasets for algorithm development; Data availability: address the need for large and diverse datasets for training reliable AI models; A flawed algorithm can cause harm. Hence, systemic amendments, extensive simulation and validation are required; Need for randomized controlled trials to compare AI-based approaches with non-AI-based approaches.