Session Descriptions & Handouts

Refer to the following list of options as you decide which breakout sessions to attend at the ImproveCareNow Fall 2025 Community Conference. Consult with colleagues attending from your center (including parent and patient partners) to maximize your team’s exposure to these sessions—plan to divide and conquer! Please contact [email protected] with any questions about these sessions.

⭐ Important note: ImproveCareNow uses the ICN Hub to share many handouts and resources. Many of the links below will work best if you are already signed in to your ICN Hub account. 

Jump to Friday

Thursday, September 18

7:15 am Pre-Conference Breakfast: Nestlé Health Science Satellite Symposium 

Progresses in Dietary Therapy for Crohn’s Disease

Lindsey Albenberg: Crohn's Disease Exclusion Diet: Evidence-Based Approaches and Evolving Insights

  • Discuss dietary therapy, the origins of the CDED diet, and original pediatric trials
  • Describe new studies and what we can extrapolate from recent studies as well as adult trials
  • Analyze modifications to CDED, including safe modifications for dietary preferences and cultural patterns/location, novel ways to use the CDED therapy, and making the link between optimal nutrition and improvement.


David Suskind: The Microbiome-Diet Axis in Crohn’s Disease: Unlocking Gut Health Through Nutrition

  • Decode the microbiome – Understand how gut microbes drive inflammation and shape Crohn’s disease
  • Map diet to microbes – See how foods and dietary patterns alter the gut ecosystem and immune responses
  • Turn science into therapy – Learn how insights from the microbiome-diet axis can guide nutrition strategies for better gut health

10:00 am Pathway to Mastery Advancement and Outcomes

Pathway to Mastery Is Not a One-Way Street: Navigating Staffing Transitions and
Sustaining ICN Engagement

  • Communicate how staffing transitions affect ICN participation for a center 
  • Strategies for transitioning staff into roles / leaning on the ICN community for support
  • Redefine what success looks like at your center / nurture your champion 

11:00 am Community Proposed Breakout I 

Clinical: Prevention: The Next Frontier for Improvement

  • Objectives coming soon!

Engagement: Past as Prologue: A Journey Through Co-Production in ICN with Early PAC Leaders

  • Explore how the ICN Network supports individuals in dual roles (personal and professional experience with IBD) and our unique perspectives gained from the experience of “growing up inside” ICN.
  • Examine the value, accessibility, and impact of co-produced resources within the ICN Network.
  • Identify current gaps and future opportunities for growth within the ICN Network as it relates to co-produced resources, including leveraging the process and outcomes of co-production to reduce health equity gaps

Access resources shared during this session (like the Ostomy Toolkit) on the ImproveCareNow Website, including the Ostomy Toolkit & Surgery Shared Decision Making Toolkit. 

QI & Data/Technology: How to Create a Basic Dashboard Using Microsoft Excel

  • Discuss how to arrange data for visualization at-a-glance     ​
  • Construct charts in Excel​ - Bring your laptop to follow along! 
  • Learn ways to use pivot tables and GETPIVOTDATA to automatically update charts​
  • Create a dashboard from data

12:25 pm Nestlé Health Science Lunch

1:30 pm Community Proposed Breakout II

Clinical & Data/Technology:

From Troughs to Triumph: Therapeutic Drug Monitoring for Pediatric Patients with IBD Starting Adalimumab

  • Explain the importance of post induction Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) after starting adalimumab​
  • Describe the quality improvement tools that can be used to reduce variation in care around TDM for adalimumab​
  • Describe the interventions used to increase the rate of post-induction TDM for adalimumab

Leveraging the Electronic Medical Record to Streamline Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM)

  • Demonstrate how an Electronic Health Record (EHR) can be utilized to streamline Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) during the maintenance phase​
  • Assess types of interventions identified through a structured TDM review process​
  • Analyze the clinical impact of routine TDM reviews in the maintenance phase of biologic therapy

Equity: Equity in Every Encounter: Social Drivers of Health (SDoH) Screening That Works

  • Define Social Drivers of Health (SDOH)and understand how SDOH impact chronic disease management and outcomes
  • Understand the current state of SDOH screening in the ICN Network by highlighting reliable processes at different ICN care centers.
  • Compare the various SDOH screening tools available to providers to assess for at risk SDOH in their patient population
  • Identify and discuss common barriers and solutions for SDOH screening through small-group discussion

Resources:

SDOH Screener Comparison - log-in to The Hub first if hyperlink doesn't immediately work

Clinical & QI: Coordinated in Care, Driven by Purpose: Orchestrating Quality Improvement Tools to Advance Outcomes in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Care

  • Understand application of Quality Improvement tools (PDSA, KDD, sFMEA, Run Charts) in real-world pediatric IBD settings and learn how to adapt tools based on team capacity, patient needs, and evolving center priorities​
  • Improve care coordination through effective pre-visit planning (PVP) and communication strategies and enhance data capture, reduce variability, and increase documentation credibility​
  • Promote a flexible, replicable model that can be used by other centers during organizational or clinical transition

3:10 pm Role Specific Sessions

Join your colleagues to discuss updates to current projects, celebrate successes, troubleshoot any challenges and identify new opportunities to improve outcomes for families.

Coordinators

Dietitians

Physicians, Advanced Practice Providers, Nurses, Pharmacists: Improving Access to IBD Medications: Mastering the Process

Patient Advisory Council 

Parent/Family Advisory Council (PFAC)

Social Work and Psychosocial Professionals (SWAP)

4:25 pm Clinical/Research Plenary: Very-Early Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease within the ImproveCareNow Learning Health System and in Clinical Practice

  • Understand the Very-Early Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease (VEO-IBD) population within ICN​
  • Review of literature informing biologic use and treatment strategies in VEO-IBD​
  • Provide practical guidance regarding care of VEO-IBD in clinical practice​
  • Provide a parent/caregiver perspective on the challenges associated with the diagnosis and treatment of VEO-IBD

Friday, September 19

8:10 am Clinical Plenary

Dietary Therapy in Crohn’s Disease: Past, Present, Future

  • Understand the role of Exclusive and Partial Enteral Nutrition (EEN/PEN) in Crohn’s disease management
  • Evaluate the impact of food additives and dietary components on gut health and inflammation
  • Explore emerging therapeutic diets and the concept of precision nutrition in IBD

9:40 am Community Proposed Breakout III

Clinical & Research: COMBINE-ing Efforts: Advancing Crohn's Disease Care with Implementation Science

  • Summarize the major findings from the COMBINE study including current trends in combination therapy in pediatric IBD and plans for implementation
  • Understand key principles of implementation science to support adoption of pediatric IBD study findings

Psychosocial: Navigating the Pitfalls of Implementing Depression Screenings in a Resource-Limited Practice

  1. Present current limitations relating to depression screening and interventions for IBD patients in a facility without psychological or social services
  2. Gain insight from patients and their families regarding existing psychological care and resources available in the outpatient pediatric gastroenterology setting
  3. Collaborate with external stakeholders, considering current practices of other resource-limited or resource-rich facilities, to optimize depression screening and implementation practices

Clinical & Engagement: IBDream Team: Adding a Pharmacist to Your Lineup

  • Describe the complexity of medication therapy challenges for pediatric IBD patients​
  • Describe the role of IBD pharmacist reviewing new prescriptions​
  • Discuss pharmacist-led medication education with families​
  • Review pharmacy intervention for access to IBD medications​
  • Explore plausible logistics to integrate pharmacy into your IBD team

10:55 am Pathway to Mastery Learning Labs

Not sure which Learning Lab your care center is in? You can review the list here:  

ICN Network participants can find their Learning Lab groups on the ICN Hub.

If you are not currently a part of your Learning Lab Hub group, you will need to request to join by navigating to Network -> Private Groups, and then requesting to join your Learning Lab Hub group.

  • Foundations Pathway
    • Foundations Learning Lab Group
  • Remission Pathway
    • Pre-Visit Planning and Population Management Learning Lab Group
  • Sustained Remission Pathway
    • Clinical Standardization/Personalized Care Learning Lab Group

12:35 pm Research Plenary

Clinical/Engagement Plenary: Seeing the Whole Patient: Understanding Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) in IBD and Its Impact on Health Outcomes

  • Define Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) and its relevance to children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
  • Recognize the prevalence and clinical significance of ARFID among youth with IBD
  • Gain insight into the lived experiences of youth with IBD and ARFID and how ARFID influences psychosocial functioning and quality of life
  • Understand key psychosocial outcomes and dietary patterns that are associated with ARFID in pediatric IBD populations
  • Identify strategies for early screening and multidisciplinary intervention to address ARFID in pediatric IBD care settings

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