This joint educational session of the Autoimmune and Cholestatic Liver Disease and Fibrosis Special Interest Groups examines liver stiffness as a unifying concept linking fibrosis, immune-mediated injury, and clinical outcomes across autoimmune, cholestatic, and metabolic liver diseases.

Part 1 focuses on the mechanistic foundations of liver stiffness, highlighting how extracellular matrix composition and collagen organization, mechanical forces within the liver microenvironment, and cellular mechanosensing and mechanotransduction pathways can influence hepatic cell behavior and disease progression. The session also explores emerging evidence of a stiffness-driven signaling contribution to fibrogenesis as well as immune activation and hepatocellular carcinoma risk, underscoring the role of mechanobiology in chronic immune-mediated and cholestatic liver disease.

Part 2 emphasizes the physiologic and clinical interpretation of liver stiffness, addressing how vascular flow, portal pressure, inflammation, and cholangiocyte-specific biology influence stiffness measurements obtained through noninvasive modalities. The session also explores how liver stiffness can predict clinical outcomes in autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cholangitis, and primary sclerosing cholangitis, and how insights from murine models of cholangiopathy inform both disease mechanisms and biomarker interpretation in human disease.

Together, these sessions provide learners with a cohesive framework for understanding liver stiffness beyond fibrosis alone, integrating mechanistic biology with clinical applications. Attendees will leave with a clearer appreciation of how liver stiffness reflects dynamic pathophysiologic processes, how it can be used to stratify risk and prognosis in autoimmune and cholestatic liver disease, and why it has become an increasingly important tool in the management of liver diseases.

This year's American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and Taiwan Association for the Study of the Liver joint community conversation program highlights updates on the current status, regional and shared challenges and unmet needs, and emerging strategies toward precision management of chronic hepatitis B.

In the setting of an emerging shortage of hepatologists, this session—presented by the Liver Fellow Network—aims to demystify the hidden curriculum and equip emerging hepatologists with fundamental professional development skills that are critical yet often underemphasized during early career transitions. The program offers practical guidance on building peer mentorship networks, transitioning from mentee to mentor roles, strategically identifying and negotiating a first academic or clinical position, and recognizing, reframing, and managing imposter syndrome.

The session features 3 presentations followed by an interactive panel discussion to foster candid dialogue between trainees and experienced faculty, providing a forum to address common trainee questions frequently raised through the Liver Fellow Network. Presenters aim for participants to gain actionable strategies and practical tools to navigate early-career transitions with confidence.

Examine the complexities of translating scientific research and real-world data into actionable clinical workflows in the care of patients with cirrhosis and coexisting metabolic disease across the transplant continuum in this educational session. As metabolic comorbidities increasingly shape risk regardless of liver disease etiology, speakers highlight pragmatic, data-driven approaches to cardiometabolic risk assessment, wait list frailty management, and early detection of clinical deterioration in the MELD 3.0 era. Presenters also explore electronic medical record (EMR)–based strategies to identify steatotic liver disease across the metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease and alcohol-associated liver disease spectrum, and operationalize emerging guidelines, therapies, and clinical trial pathways at scale. Together, these presentations emphasize implementation strategies adopted by high-performing centers to translate complex real-world data into measurable improvements in clinical outcomes. A focused debate on the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists in liver transplant candidates highlights the balance between metabolic benefit and physiologic risk.

Explore the ethical challenges shaping contemporary liver transplant practice amid increasing public scrutiny, limited resources, and evolving technologies. This multidisciplinary session examines how innovations such as donation after circulatory death (DCD), machine perfusion, and living donation intersect with ethical obligations to donors, recipients, and society. Faculty address controversies surrounding donor risk thresholds, directed donation and paired exchange, wait list disparities, and allocation decisions that occur outside traditional sequencing. 

Jointly planned by the Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease and Public Health/Health Delivery Special Interest Groups, this 2-part symposium examines transformation of care for alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) through the lens of health delivery and engagement to improve outcomes. Key concepts explored in part 1 of the symposium focus on communication to improve engagment, including:

• Language and stigma
• Trauma-informed care
• Motivational interviewing
• Serious illness communication

Jointly planned by the Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease and Public Health/Health Delivery Special Interest Groups, this 2-part symposium examines transformation of care for alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) through the lens of health delivery and engagement to improve outcomes. Key concepts explored in part 2 of the symposium include:

• Leveraging biomarkers in alcohol use disorder and ALD screening and treatment
• Impact of cardiometabolic risk factors in ALD
• Strategies to implement alcohol use care in clinical practice
• Leveraging health impacts of alcohol beyond the liver to increase care engagement
• Alcohol policy as liver disease prevention and treatment

Portal hypertension is a complex, heterogeneous condition. Its presentation, mechanisms, and clinical consequences vary widely across age groups, etiologies, and individual patient characteristics. Traditional, uniform approaches to risk stratification and management are increasingly insufficient to address this complexity, particularly as new diagnostic tools, genetic insights, and therapeutic strategies emerge.

This 2-part symposium—jointly planned by the Pediatric Liver Disorder and the Portal Hypertension Special Interest Groups—explores personalized approaches to portal hypertension across the lifespan, from childhood to adulthood, integrating pediatric and adult perspectives. Through case-based discussions and expert-led presentations, the sessions address contemporary strategies for risk stratification, management of portal vein thrombosis, and acute and long-term complications of portal hypertension.

Portal hypertension is a complex, heterogeneous condition. Its presentation, mechanisms, and clinical consequences vary widely across age groups, etiologies, and individual patient characteristics. Traditional, uniform approaches to risk stratification and management are increasingly insufficient to address this complexity, particularly as new diagnostic tools, genetic insights, and therapeutic strategies emerge.

This 2-part symposium—jointly planned by the Pediatric Liver Disorder and the Portal Hypertension Special Interest Groups—explores personalized approaches to portal hypertension across the lifespan, from childhood to adulthood, integrating pediatric and adult perspectives. Through case-based discussions and expert-led presentations, the sessions address contemporary strategies for risk stratification, management of portal vein thrombosis, and acute and long-term complications of portal hypertension. Presenters particularly emphasize tailoring decisions based on disease mechanisms, patient-specific factors, and evolving evidence, with the goal of improving outcomes and optimizing care pathways in both pediatric and adult populations.

Jointly presented by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the Japan Society of Hepatology, this progam is the second of 2 sessions with the shared goal of reviewing evolving strategies in liver cancer management in Eastern and Western regions. The first session, presented at Japan DDW 2026 in Kobe, Japan, focused on liver cancer treatment. This second session focuses on the prevention of liver cancer in persons with viral and metabolic liver diseases.