ImproveCareNow Registry Used to Evaluate Use of Concomitant Immunomodulators with Adalimumab Therapy in Crohn’s Disease

Adalimumab (ADA) is an important biologic drug used in the treatment of pediatric Crohn’s disease. In May at Digestive Disease Week 2016, a meeting of gastroenterologists from around the world, Dr. Keith Benkov presented research examining variation in the use of Adalimumab monotherapy and concomitant therapy with an immunomodulator in pediatric Crohn’s disease. The cross-sectional analysis was completed using data from the ImproveCareNow Registry (known as “ICN2”).

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Using data from ICN2, Benkov’s research team characterized the use of Adalimumab monotherapy and concomitant therapy for pediatric patients (< 18 years old) registered in ImproveCareNow between 6/1/2010 and 5/31/2015. The team reached a number of conclusions, including that Adalimumab is being used in 13% of pediatric patients, and of those 48% were also taking concomitant therapy. Both the percent of children being treated with Adalimumab and the percent taking concomitant therapy nearly doubled over the five year study period.

This novel pediatric IBD research highlights the power of data, carefully collected and curated over time, to help us better understand the nature and outcomes for pediatric Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis treatments. Better understanding will enable us to continue to improve the care and the health of patients in the near term.

ICN2 is the largest and fastest growing pediatric IBD registry in the world, with data from over 25,000 patients with IBD as of July 2016. The ImproveCareNow Network currently includes 90 centers across 36 United States and the District of Columbia, England and Qatar. The purpose of ImproveCareNow is to transform the health, care and costs for all children and adolescents with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis by building a sustainable collaborative chronic care network, 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. Data in the ImproveCareNow registry is used for improvement, research and innovation. Submit a Research Proposal >>

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Author's note: As clinicians, we often discuss difficult cases and strategies to help our patients. We rely on experience and the best medical evidence to guide our recommendations. However, to see the big picture in trends in care, we need large data repositories like the ICN Registry. The study from Keith Benkov and colleagues utilized the ICN Registry and demonstrates the increasing use of adalimumab as well as concomitant immunomodulators in the pediatric patients with Crohn’s disease over the last five years. The power of the ICN Registry allows us to examine not only trends in care, but the effects of these trends on clinical outcomes. Stay tuned- the ICN research engine is revving up!