LOOP

I was 8 years old when diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 1975.  That was the dark ages.  Non-flexible scopes.  Months and months without a diagnosis.  Wait!  There’s still that months and months without a diagnosis problem.  That’s something we’re working on fixing.

After a fairly mild disease course for 20 years, my UC worsened significantly in 1994 resulting in a full colectomy in 1996.  Guess what, though?  This blog isn’t about me.

Because of those dastardly internet predators, all of the names that I use, other than that of the family dog (Izzy) have been changed to code names.

My daughter, Tinkerbell, then 6, was diagnosed with UC in 2004.  After her initial remission, she had a flare up in 2010.  While it took a while to get her under control, we learned a few things.  One, she cannot take 6MP.  Which bums me out because I like having all of the arrows in the quiver for treatment.  Second, her UC is low and localized.  That’s proven to be a good thing.  She’s back in full remission taking no medication except a 5ASA drug.

My wife, Sela, and I thought that IBD had hit us hard enough, but we were wrong.  In 2010, my son, Jedediah, was diagnosed with what I'll call an advanced case of UC.  He struggled mightily over the next 12 months as we watched one medicine after another not work.  Jed got sicker and sicker, in and out of the hospital.  After all of the arrows in the quiver had been fired, Jedediah had his first colectomy surgery in January 2011 and the next 2 months later.  Jedediah is doing great!

Our youngest daughter, Elly Mae, has escaped the family genetic lottery through her first 11 years.  She lives in constant fear that she’s next.  Sela and I take solace in the fact that the odds really are with us, but you never know.

I volunteer for several IBD organizations, and I speak at IBD education events.  I have many messages, but my main focus is to help parents understand the power they have over their children’s care.  IBD has a public relations problem—people don’t like to talk about poop.  Other chronic illnesses get all the pub.

As a result, I’ve talked with dozens of parents in recent years who have that shell shocked look on their face.  Many had never heard of “Crohn’s disease” or “ulcerative colitis” until the doctor delivered the diagnosis to them.  They are venturing into the unknown, and that scares the hell out of them.

I understand.  My parents were those parents.  I’ve lived through it as the ill child of parents who had to feel their way around, as an adult with IBD and no remission in sight and as a parent of two children—one with mild IBD and the other, well, not so much.

Knowledge is power.  Being a parent is power.  Acquire and uses these powers.  Your kids are going to need it and you.

Han (I’m a 45 year old Star Wars geek.  What other name should I use?  And since I get to pick the code names, I’m taking Han all day long and twice on Sundays).

Richard Colletti, MD | Network Director

ImproveCareNow Network Director and Physician Leader for the Vermont Children's Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care - Dr. Richard Colletti - in his own words. 

Like other pediatric gastroenterologists who care for children with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, I try to learn as much as I can about my patient, as much as I can about the disease, and to care about both.  But the care that a patient gets doesn’t just depend on how much a doctor knows, or how much a doctor cares—it depends on the system in which the doctor works.

I've been in practice for over 40 years, and I’ve felt gratified to be able to provide one-on-one care to many patients, and to develop caring relationships with many families. For the last five years I’ve also been involved in ImproveCareNow and the C3N Project, collaborating with other clinicians and staff.  Through this work I’ve felt the additional gratification of knowing that our work is helping so many kids with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis get better, even kids I never met and don’t know.

When ImproveCareNow got started, in January 2007, I didn’t know much about quality improvement (in retrospect, I knew less than I thought).  After five years I’m beginning to understand the power of QI, not only how it can help improve outcomes, but its ability to transform the way we work, and the way we think about our work.

I’ve been struck by how it has become second nature for the whole pediatric GI unit in Vermont to use QI.  The doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, medical assistant and secretary—we have learned to use work flow diagrams (“swim lanes”), run charts and ramp up PDSAs—“swim, run and ramp up”—to more effectively schedule follow-up visits, order lab tests and x-rays, make sure patients get seen regularly, and get the right dose of medication.  Pre-visit planning, population management and self-management support have become part of our everyday system.  Team lunch on Mondays is not just to eat and socialize, but an opportunity to discuss how to use these QI tools to deliver better care.

It’s satisfying to know that more of our patients are in remission today than five years ago—our work is paying off.  What’s next for us?  We want to have a parent join our QI effort.  Until we have a true partnership with patients and parents, we can’t get the best outcomes.  Like the pediatric gastroenterologists, nurses and staff at the other ImproveCareNow centers, we want the best outcomes, the most patients possible in remission.  Not only our patients, but all of the kids with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis in the US.

May 19th is set aside as a day to raise awareness about two chronic illnesses that together affect millions of people worldwide.

Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.  Together known as Inflammatory Bowel Disease or IBD, these two chronic conditions affect the digestive tract - from top to bottom.  The causes are not known, and while research continues there is currently no cure.  However, there is hope and a whole lot of heart - in the ImproveCareNow Network.

Thank you for joining us here, on this special day - World IBD Day 2012!   ImproveCareNow, together with strategic partner - the C3N Project - is engaging a community.  We look forward to having you as a part of this community.  We have so much to learn from each other.  LOOP is a place to share information, to learn, to discuss and to work collaboratively.  Together we can co-design the best standard of care for kids with IBD.  It begins with awareness and understanding.

You can help raise awareness and understanding about IBD and ImproveCareNow (today, tomorrow and the next day) by simply using your voice.  Ask questions and learn more about IBD and ImproveCareNow on Facebook and Twitter, and watch our videos on YouTube. Have CIRCLE, our eNewsletter, delivered to your inbox.  Email your questions and stories to social@improvecarenow.org so we can answer and share them on LOOP.  We have a fabulous group of clinicians, researchers, innovators, parents and patients all ready to write posts for LOOP and they want to hear from you.

Happy World IBD Day to you!  We look forward to seeing you back here on LOOP | the official blog of ImproveCareNow in the near future!

We all have a voice - patients, parents, clinicians and researchers – and we want to share our stories, ideas and innovations with you.  Through LOOP, we hope to further our impact in the pediatric Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (IBD) community.

ImproveCareNow is an established network of pediatric gastroenterology care centers – 36 care centers, with 6,800+ patients in our registry and 300+ clinicians participating in the Network.  We have raised the bar for the standard of care in pediatric Crohn’s and colitis.   Our remission rates speak for themselves.  ImproveCareNow kids' remission rates have climbed from 50% to 75% in the first five years.  Our end goal is to spread ImproveCareNow to all kids in the U.S. with IBD – so that many more can feel well instead of sick.

Thank you for visiting LOOP.  We are officially launching May 19^th in alignment with World IBD Day 2012.  This is your invitation to learn more about ImproveCareNow and IBD; and to join us in improving the care and outcomes for all kids with Crohn’s & colitis.  Spread the word!

Email social@improvecarenow.org if you have a story to tell, a topic for our experts to blog about, or a question or comment share.  It’s always great to hear from you!