Co-Founder of ImproveCareNow, Peter Margolis, to Retire from Scientific Director Role; New Scientific Committee to Continue Governance of Improvement, Innovation & Science

The ImproveCareNow Board of Directors have announced that Peter Margolis, MD, PhD, is retiring from the role of Scientific Director and stepping into a new chapter as of July 1, 2026. 

We are profoundly grateful for his contributions to ImproveCareNow and its mission to transform the health, care and costs for all children and youth with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Over nineteen years, his vision and scientific leadership helped build ImproveCareNow and shape its impact, and the foundation he established is one on which the network and learning health systems more broadly continue to grow. We look forward to his continued influence and to establishing a legacy of improvement, innovation, and scientific rigor across the network and beyond as he continues to share knowledge and mentorship.

When we started ImproveCareNow, the science of improving care for children with IBD lived in a handful of people and a set of methods that most clinicians had never encountered. Today it lives in the network - in more than a hundred care centers, in the patients, families, clinicians, and researchers who have become improvers, and in a body of work that has outgrown any single role. That is the outcome I most wanted, and it is the reason I can step back now without stepping away.

Peter Margolis, MD, PhD, Co-Founder & outgoing Scientific Director, ImproveCareNow

 As part of the organization’s ongoing evolution, the Board has decided to not fill the role of Scientific Director. Instead, it will create a new board committee to provide governance for improvement, innovation, and science within ImproveCareNow to ensure a smooth transition. The committee will guide the network’s ongoing and future quality improvement and scientific work and help ensure it develops the next generation of leaders within the learning health network environment. While Peter will retire from the Scientific Director role, he will be invited to serve the scientific committee as it forms and continue to share knowledge and mentorship during this transition.

The decision to update the leadership structure of ImproveCareNow and create a new scientific committee after Peter’s retirement reflects not just good governance, but the maturity of ImproveCareNow as a Learning Health Network. We have grown from a visionary idea into a robust and collaborative community that knows how to evolve without losing sight of what matters most - improved outcomes and better lives for patients and families living with inflammatory bowel disease.

Missy Ketchum, Chair, Board of Directors, ImproveCareNow, Inc.

We will share more information on the scientific committee and how we will celebrate Peter’s founding role in ImproveCareNow in the months ahead. We thank the ImproveCareNow community for continuing to trust the leadership and recommendations of the Board of Directors as we work together to create a bright future with continued innovation and improvement for ImproveCareNow.

Read Peter’s full statement below.

After nineteen years, I am retiring from my role as Scientific Director and stepping into a new chapter. When we started ImproveCareNow, the science of improving care for children with IBD lived in a handful of people and a set of methods that most clinicians had never encountered. Today it lives in the network - in more than a hundred care centers, in the patients, families, clinicians, and researchers who have become improvers, and in a body of work that has outgrown any single role. That is the outcome I most wanted, and it is the reason I can step back now without stepping away.

The Board’s decision to place stewardship of the network’s improvement science under a standing committee is the right one. A structure that outlasts any individual. I will help the Board shape that committee as it forms and continue to contribute where I can be useful.

What we built in ImproveCareNow helped show what a learning health system can be. Care that learns and improves with every child it touches. I will devote energy to helping that idea take root beyond us: cultivating the conditions that will enable Learning Health Networks to grow and developing the leaders who will carry the model and methods to other conditions and communities. I am grateful beyond what I can easily say to Dick Colletti for his vision, passion, and leadership, and to everyone who has helped build the network together.

About ImproveCareNow

ImproveCareNow is a Learning Health Network dedicated to transforming care, health and costs for all children and youth with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (Inflammatory Bowel Disease or IBD) by building a sustainable collaborative chronic care network. We are enabling patients, families, clinicians and researchers to work together in a learning health care system to accelerate innovation, discovery and the application of new knowledge. We invite everyone interested in getting kids with IBD better right now to join us and support our work.