News

ImproveCareNow (ICN) is pleased to announce that John Grunow, MD has been chosen for the role of Chair of the Board of Directors beginning on July 1, 2026. John will be replacing Missy Ketchum who has served as Chair of the Board since 2023, and as a member of the ICN Board for nine years.

During her tenure, Missy helped hire two executive directors and a clinical director, provided support during the ICN registry transition, and assisted in managing grants and gifts to support ICN’s important work. As a passionate advocate and a seasoned nonprofit professional, she has brought an incredible amount of wisdom and expertise to this leadership role. 

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.

ImproveCareNow Clinical Director Shehzad Saeed, MD, FAAP, AGAF, NASPGHAN-F has announced that he will step down from his role as in Fall 2026. ImproveCareNow (ICN) is implementing an extensive search for a Medical Director (formally known as Clinical Director). The ICN Board of Directors examined the leadership roles in the network and, in anticipation of hiring a physician leader to replace Dr. Shehzad Saeed, voted to change the title of Clinical Director to Medical Director. The Board made the change to a term more widely used by healthcare organizations to describe similar roles.

We had been accepting applications through June 1, 2026, and are now in the next stage of this process and scheduling interviews with promising applicants.

Johnson & Johnson recently announced the Federal Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of STELARA® (ustekinumab) for pediatric Crohn’s disease. This approval offers patients over the age of two with moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease more treatment options and better access to effective therapies. Ustekinumab is the first non-TNF biologic to treat both adult and pediatric patients with Crohn’s disease two years and older.

After more than a decade since the last major therapeutic approval in 2014, the regulatory approval of ustekinumab for pediatric Crohn’s disease marks more than scientific progress—it represents renewed hope, expanded choice, and a long-overdue commitment to children living with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases. By expanding our arsenal, we are taking a major step forward in improving outcomes and quality of life for children facing this challenging condition.

– Shehzad Saeed, MD, FAAP, AGAF, Clinical Director, ImproveCareNow 

ImproveCareNow (ICN) is committed to improving clinical outcomes measures for pediatric patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (also known as inflammatory bowel disease or IBD) cared for in our network. To monitor our progress, we consistently track measures for young patients with IBD cared for at ICN centers.  We are thrilled to report a shift in our clinical remission measure from 82.1% to 83.27%. This improvement means that approximately 300 additional ICN patients have achieved clinical remission.  Clinical remission is defined as the total number of patients with physician global assessment identified as quiescent from patients who have received a visit in the last 13 months (learn more in our Model IBD Care Guidelines).

The ImproveCareNow Board of Directors has announced that Clinical Director Shehzad Saeed, MD, FAAP, AGAF, NASPGHAN-F has made the decision to transition from his current role as ICN Clinical Director this fall.

ImproveCareNow (ICN) has had extraordinary success since it began 19 years ago,  increasing remission rates for thousands of young people with IBD, transforming how pediatric IBD care is provided, enlightening and exciting clinicians and other care providers, and engaging patients and parents in a shared purpose and effort. We are pleased to share our ImproveCareNow 2025 Annual Update, which includes highlights and achievements from 2025 and plans for our continued work to improve health, care, and costs for young people with IBD in 2026 and beyond.

ImproveCareNow (ICN) is excited to share that findings from a years-long observational study, Effectiveness and safety of ustekinumab in pediatric Crohn's disease: Results of the REALITI study are now published in the March 2026 issue of the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. The study aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of ustekinumab in real-world clinical settings for children with Crohn’s disease, and showed that the effectiveness and safety of ustekinumab treatment were similar in pediatric patients and young adult patients. You can read more about these findings here.

Thank you to the following for mentioning and continuing to spread the news about ImproveCareNow and our work to transform the health, care and cost for kids and youth with IBD. 

According to the 2025-2026 U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) rankings, ImproveCareNow (ICN) care centers are among the best children’s hospitals in the nation, ranking at the top of the Honor Roll and in the Gastroenterology & GI Surgery specialty. USNWR rankings are based on a reputational survey sent to pediatric specialists and a data survey that is sent to a handpicked set of hospitals.