Florida Healthy Liver Program™ promises a brighter, healthier future for those with liver disease
By Patrick Crowley FSU College of Medicine
2025 ANNUAL REPORT / FLORIDA HEALTHY LIVER PROGRAM™ 31
Gabriella, 15, has a beautiful smile that can light up a room and talks enthusiastically about her volleyball and flag football teams. Her sunny personality is infectious!
Susan Hayes, 67, is a retiree, soft-spoken and thoughtful. Originally from Michigan, she moved to North Florida to be close to her children.
Gabriella and Susan have something in common. Both benefitted from a simple scan that revealed a startling indication— an unhealthy liver— but for different reasons. For Gabriella, after further testing, she was diagnosed with liver steatosis( formerly called a fatty liver), mostly due to a sedentary lifestyle, her weight and a diet rich in carbs( think white bread, pastas, snack foods, sugary drinks and the like). Susan was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis.“ Basically, my immune system is attacking my liver and causing cirrhosis,” she said.
Their similarities may end there, as Gabriella’ s condition has improved dramatically in just seven months with diet modification and exercise, while Susan’ s condition is being addressed with medication. But had it not been for a Fibroscan™ in their primary care physician’ s office, their conditions could have gone undetected for months or years as their livers slowly succumbed to disease.
According to Dr. Scottie Whiddon, Susan and Gabriella’ s primary care physician and co-medical director of FSU PrimaryHealth™, this early detection underscores the need to get these devices— in this case an Echosens Fibroscan™— into the hands of primary care physicians.
“ We’ re the initial point of care,” he said.“ We’ re the soldiers on the ground.“ Our goal is to not only find people early but educate everyone about the impact this simple scan can have when it comes to early diagnosis and treatment.”
Whiddon and a cadre of other like-minded physicians and health care providers believe so much in the tremendous benefit of this scanner that they established the Florida Healthy Liver Program TM, a collaboration between FSU Health and Mayo Clinic in Florida based at the FSU College of Medicine. They are now conducting a feasibility study to see if getting these scanners into the hands of primary care physicians will lead to early diagnosis and better care.
“ Dr. Cyneetha Strong( co-medical director of FSU PrimaryHealth) visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and presented our initial data,” Whiddon said.“ In the first six months, 55 adult and pediatric patients underwent a scan. A total of 42 % demonstrated both liver fibrosis and steatosis. The scanner is an incredible tool and it’ s simple. You can do a point-of-care scan in just a few minutes.”
Left photo: Rosaria and her daughter, 15-year-old Gabriella, hear the results of Gabriella’ s latest liver scan from Dr. Scottie Whiddon. According to Whiddon, Gabriella was able to reverse her condition in just seven months through lifestyle changes, such as incorporating a better diet and exercise.