LOOP Blog

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.

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.

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

Welcome to LOOP | the official blog of ImproveCareNow.

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!

Contact us 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!