Global Liver Institute

We would be incredibly grateful to be selected to receive the Elevate Prize, as the funding and support would help us further our mission to improve the lives of individuals and families impacted by liver disease.  We operate a number of programs that are critical to the lives of people affected by liver disease, which aim to promote innovation, encourage collaboration, and scale optimal approaches to help eradicate liver diseases.  We hope to continue to grow as an organization and reach even more people across the globe who are affected by liver disease.  Any additional support and funding to help us achieve our mission and expand our reach only strengthens our impact and brings us closer to eradicating liver disease.

Donna R. Cryer, JD is  Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Liver Institute, the only patient-driven liver health nonprofit operating in the US and Europe. She has channeled her personal experience as a patient with inflammatory bowel disease and a 25-year liver transplant recipient into professional advocacy across a career in law, policy, consulting, public relations, clinical trial recruitment, and nonprofit management.

For almost a decade Mrs. Cryer founded and led CryerHealth, a healthcare consulting firm providing strategic counsel to top biopharmaceutical companies, patient advocacy organizations, and emerging technology firms on patient engagement in health information technology, drug discovery, and clinical decision making.

Mrs. Cryer serves on the Boards of Directors of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies, the Innovation and Value Initiative (IVI), Sibley Memorial Hospital/Johns Hopkins Medicine, and the Executive Committee for the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative.

Donna’s goal is for liver health to take its proper place on the global public health agenda consistent with its prevalence and impact, which is reflected through the efforts of the Global Liver Institute.

Liver disease is an issue that affects communities all across the globe.  Liver disease is responsible for around 2 million deaths per year worldwide.  The Global Liver Organization works to improve the lives of individuals and families impacted by liver disease through promoting innovation, encouraging collaboration, and scaling optimal approaches to help eradicate liver diseases.  Our vision is for liver health to take its proper place on the global public health agenda consistent with its prevalence and impact.  

The Global Liver Institute operates numerous programs, ranging from campaigns such as "Beyond the Biopsy," which is dedicated to accelerating the acceptance and adoption of noninvasive technologies as an alternative to biopsy, to the Liver Cancers Council, which aims to elevate the recognition of liver cancer’s prevalence and impact; promote regular screening and early diagnosis; increase the amount and quality of liver cancer-specific education, navigation, and policy; and to train liver cancer advocates to advance patient-centered research, care, support, and policy.

Our work is exceptionally unique, as we are creating an infrastructure to identify and coalesce stakeholders around solutions to problems in the field.  For example, though it has been long considered the gold standard for diagnosing and staging liver disease such as Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) or Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH), liver biopsy is an invasive, potentially inaccurate, and risky procedure.  We launched the Beyond the Biopsy initiative in September 2020 to promote awareness and education about the use of non-invasive diagnostics as an alternative to biopsies. The initiative encourages advocates to support greater adoption of non-invasive diagnostics by directly influencing legislative, regulatory, and coverage/reimbursement changes.

It is programs like these, founded by the Global Liver Institute, which disrupt the liver disease space and give rise to new and better alternatives, innovation, and encourage collaboration.

The Global Liver Institute directly has an effect on humanity as our work is patient driven and aims to improve the lives of individuals and families impacted by liver disease.  We reach those impacted by liver disease through the many programs we run, some of which are dedicated to raising awareness for those affected by liver disease, others work to inform patients, and some even operate to improve common practices and treatment in the liver space.  These programs are effective for a number of reasons, one being because they take an approach unique to the liver space and are strongly centered around patients.