S5 - E16.4 - Remembering MASLD Master Stephen Harrison: Stephen As Role Model

Surfing the MASH Tsunami

This is the second half of Roger Green's conversation with Dimitar Tonev. It focuses largely on some of the elements of Stephen's personality that made him so unique and a role model within the community.
Dimitar discusses one more innovation Stephen brought to MASLD clinical trials: recruiting in neighborhoods that received lower levels of medical care and then, within those communities, recruiting within families. Roger harkens back to the recruitment issue to tell the story that Stephen and he started SurfingMASH to educate sponsors and sites about the ability to keep trials running in a site network like Summit.
To Dimitar, one thing that made Stephen special was his "enormous capacity to work long hours," to the degree that left Dim "wondering how this is even humanly possible." He mentions early clinic starts, 4 a.m. text messages, and other related of-hours items. Roger shares a story he heard at the funeral about Stephen stating that he didn't sleep much but slept"very efficiently." Dimitar and Roger agree about the energy and enthusiasm Stephen devoted to everything he did.

Dimitar tells a story about Stephen flying over the Atlantic with his family. You'll have to listen to learn it. He goes on to discuss Stephen's passion for working on minor diseases that were unlikely to ever pay off in terms of money or prestige and, finally, how Stephen boosted Dim's self-image by presenting a couple of Dim's slides during a presentation at a major meeting.