Speech in Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE)

If patients are willing to download the Winterlight application to their personal iOS devices this will be done at study visit 1. The application will send a notification to the patient once per month, requesting that they perform a paragraph reading task, a picture description task, and an animal naming task.

If patients are admitted to UM hospital for suspected or confirmed OHE, with patient assent, physician study staff will assist the patient in recording a paragraph reading task, a picture description task, and an animal naming task.

Staff will call patients in anticipation of in-person regular visits to set up a same-day study visit. Patients will record the three speech tasks at this time.

Staff will call patients in anticipation of in-person procedure visits to set up a same-day study visit, prior to procedure if sedation is planned. Patients will record the three speech tasks at this time.

Non-physician study staff will call the patients every 3 months and, using a phone script, will ask them survey questions about their hepatic health.