Our Motor City Conference with a Motown Vibe 🎵

Our Fall 2026 Community Conference is almost here! I cannot wait to see each of you in Detroit September 16 - 18. If you haven’t had an opportunity to register, I hope you will do so today and join us for opportunities to learn, connect, and continue our quality improvement efforts.

As improvers, change is necessary. We have some great additions to our 2026 conference. We’re hosting a pre-conference session highlighting our shared decision-making tool developed through our work leveraging the COMBINE study. We’re so excited for this session, we’re offering a small discount to those who attend! Please join us to learn more about this exciting work, made possible through a generous grant from the Leona M. & Harry B Helmsley Charitable Trust.

After this session, the Patient Advisory Council (PAC) and Parent / Family Advisory Council (PFAC) jointly welcome you to the Motown Mix & Mingle. Enjoy a drink and take some time to meet patients and parents attending the conference. This year, we’ve DOUBLED patient and parent attendance and have several new families joining us. We hope you will take the time to meet and mingle with them before heading to our engagement fair.

Speaking of the engagement fair, we have MORE exhibitors this year including several nonprofit organizations! Please take some time to visit each table and learn more about their resources. We’re thrilled to welcome 4 new exhibitors in 2026 and are so grateful for new and returning supporters of our conference.

And finally, we hope you’ll join us on Thursday evening for a social reception where we’ll feature hors d’oeuvres, drinks, photo ops, and a DJ in the Detroit Marriott’s gorgeous, waterfront 42North reception venue.

Get #InTheLOOP with our #ICNCC26F informational blog post for details about learning objectives, our agenda, patient & caregiver coproducers, a clinical guest speaker, and fun ways to participate!

I hope you also noticed we’re providing all of these opportunities while reducing registration costs for our attendees. Pricing dropped 40 – 50% this year for all registration categories and we sincerely hope this makes it possible for more of you to attend.

Our price drop is directly related to two important variables – generating additional outside revenue (which more than doubled since 2025) and reducing onsite costs. What does this mean for you? Due to both cost and hotel logistics, we will not be offering all-day beverage service or snack breaks. Instead, we will provide some packaged snacks at time of check-in and of course, beverages will be available at breakfast, lunch, and receptions. This saves us approximately $40,000 in overall conference costs.

What we promise is an exceptional experience for our community. We can’t wait to be dancing in the streets of Detroit with our favorite improvers! See you soon.

Continuing Education at #ICNCC26F

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Cincinnati Children’s and ICN, Inc. Cincinnati Children’s is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team. This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credits for learning and change, with one-to-one reciprocity for dietitians. This activity is approved for continuing nursing education (CNE) contact hours. Completion of this CME activity, which includes learner assessment and feedback, enables the learner to earn points in the American Board of Pediatrics’ (ABP) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. ImproveCareNow is also pursuing Social Worker CEU credit and Psychology CEU credit for this learning event.

ImproveCareNow is made up of more than 100 care centers and has a presence on three continents, with 90% of the highest ranked pediatric gastroenterology programs in the U.S., including many U.S. News and World Reports 2025/2026 Honor Roll Children’s Hospitals as members. With 1,180 pediatric gastroenterologists and more than 33,000 active IBD patients, ImproveCareNow reaches approximately 55% of IBD patients in the U.S. cared for by pediatric gastroenterologists. ImproveCareNow Community Conferences present the ideal opportunity to engage with these committed healthcare providers, patients and parents, and to learn about recent results in our research and improvement efforts.

Everything we do in ImproveCareNow is magnified by the efforts of thousands of improvers! No action is too small; here are some ways to get started:

💚 Join the Patient Advisory Council (pediatric patients with IBD who are 14+)

💙 Join the Parent/Family Advisory Council (parents/caregivers of young people with IBD)

💚 Participate in our Current Research Opportunities (subject to eligibility)

💙 RSVP to join us at one of our upcoming ICN events

💚 Subscribe to blog updates to stay #InTheLOOP with our IBD stories

💙 Download, use & share our free, co-produced IBD resources

💚 Connect with our welcoming & supportive pediatric IBD community and receive IBD resources, community stories, and ICN updates & opportunities

💙 Donate to ImproveCareNow - we are proud to use every dollar donated to advance our mission!

Our mission is to transform the health, care and costs for all children and adolescents with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (Inflammatory Bowel Disease or IBD) by building a sustainable collaborative chronic care network.