Towards collaborative management of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a 'real-world' pathway for fibrosis risk assessment in primary care.

Background: The optimal strategy to support primary care practitioners (PCP) to assess fibrosis severity in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and thereby make appropriate management decisions remains unclear.

Aims: To examine the feasibility of using a two-step pathway that combined simple scores (NAFLD Fibrosis Score and Fibrosis-4 Index) with transient elastography (FibroScan) to streamline NAFLD referrals from a 'routine' primary care population to specialist hepatology management clinics (HMC).

Methods: The two-step 'Towards Collaborative Management of NAFLD' (TCM-NAFLD) fibrosis risk assessment pathway was implemented at two outer metropolitan primary healthcare practices in Brisbane.