More About Us
The Liver Institute utilizes a multi-disciplinary team approach to provide you with the best, most-comprehensive care. At your first visit, you will meet with a benefits counselor who will help you navigate the insurance process. The Liver Institute accepts a variety of major insurances and even if you currently are uninsured, the benefits counselor may identify insurance options that you can obtain at no or little cost.
Patients will be assigned to one of our Infectious Disease or Internal Medicine physicians, who are experts in the field of Hepatitis B & C. We also have an on-site pharmacy team member who will provide you with personalized treatment education, including how to take your prescribed medication and potential side effects.
Why Get Treatment
Early treatment significantly reduces the risk of cirrhosis, liver cancer and the potential need for a liver transplant. If you received hepatitis C treatment before and didn’t tolerate it or it didn’t work, there are new Hepatitis C treatments which offer:
–Higher Efficacy and Cure Rates
–Reduced Side Effects
–Lower Pill Burdens (as low as one pill per day)
–Shorter Treatment Durations (average 12 weeks)
We accept most major health plans. Contact us to confirm your insurance is accepted.
Mission Statement
The Liver Institute’s multi-disciplinary team is dedicated to providing compassionate, personalized, state-of-the-art Hepatitis B & C care.
STATE OF THE ART
FIBROSCAN TECHNOLOGY
FibroScan is also known as transient elastography and it is used to assess liver stiffness. The FibroScan machine sends a painless sound wave through your liver. The speed with which the wave passes through the liver is measured and is correlated with how elastic the liver is. A liver that is damaged or fibrotic is less elastic (or “stiff”); while a liver that is healthier is more elastic. The FibroScan results—along with your lab tests—allow us to assess the state of your liver and determine which hepatitis treatment is right for you.
Although it’s been used for some time in Europe, FibroScan technology was first approved by the FDA in October 2013. It has quickly become a preferred method of measuring liver health since liver biopsies, an older testing method, was invasive and more risky. FibroScan is used to evaluate 1.5 million men, women and children each year. It has been featured in more than 750 peer-reviewed articles and is often used in hepatitis research studies.
What can I expect from the exam?
The exam is performed in our office and is painless, non-invasive (i.e., does not require needles or injectables) and requires no down time. This test gives us a real-time assessment of the health of your liver (how elastic it is). You will be asked to fast for 2-3 hours prior to your FibroScan test and the exam itself lasts about 10 minutes.
During your exam, you will be asked to lay down on your back with your right arm raised behind your head. Our experienced operator will place a small amount of ultrasound gel on the ultrasound probe and then move the probe on the skin over your liver. You will feel a bit of pressure but the test is not painful.
