News

The ImproveCareNow (ICN) Network has been awarded a three-year, 2.5-million-dollar grant by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. The project will support the implementation of key findings from the landmark clinical trial, COMBINE (Clinical Outcomes of Methotrexate Binary treatment with INfliximab or adalimumab in practice).

ImproveCareNow’s (ICN) Board of Directors is pleased to kick off their FY 2025 term starting July 2024. 

The Board has set the following goals for the coming term:  

• Monitor the progress of the FY25-28 Strategic Plan 
• Charter a board level data committee to continue the network’s commitment to sound data governance policies  
• Continue working to ensure the financial future of the network with planning and partnerships  
• Ensure network succession planning at all levels of leadership 

Beginning in 2023, ImproveCareNow Executive Leadership and key network members completed a successful strategic planning period, which was enhanced by the deliberate inclusion of community feedback throughout the entire process of developing the network's future goals and strategy.

Through this strategic planning process, six domains were identified as critical areas of focus for the network: Outcomes; Health Equity; Leadership & Sustainability; Engagement & Community Building; Technology; Research & Innovation. Each domain reflects the goals ImproveCareNow aims to achieve over the next three years.

Notable modifications in the FY25-28 Strategic Plan include:

• The addition of a sixth domain: Research & Innovation
• A reduction in the number of goals the network takes on
• More concrete action items to drive health equity
• Revising and sharing a measurement strategy
• Increased focus on tracking whole person health, including a psychosocial metric

ImproveCareNow tracks measures of care for young patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis in our network. Recently, we reported a shift in our prednisone-free clinical remission measure from 80.3% to 81.5%. This improvement means 248 additional ICN patients have achieved prednisone-free clinical remission. Analysis by ICN's data team determined that 41 care centers contributed to this shift with documented improved results in this measure.

ImproveCareNow (ICN) has had enormous success since it began 17 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 work. We are pleased to share our ImproveCareNow 2023 Annual Update, which includes highlights and achievements from 2023 and plans for our continued work to improve health, care, and costs for young people with IBD in 2024 and beyond.

ImproveCareNow is very pleased to have welcomed two new care centers to the network in 2023:  

• Golisano Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida
• Holtz Children's Hospital at University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Medical Center

ImproveCareNow tracks measures of care for young patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis in our network. Our Success is an infographic we use to share some of our key measurable results and show you what we have achieved together. Recently, we reported a shift in our Sustained Remission measure from 57% to 59%. This improvement means 117 additional ICN patients have not only achieved clinical remission, they have sustained it for at least one year.

ImproveCareNow is pleased to be an official partner of the 2024 Crohn’s & Colitis Congress®, which is a partnership of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA). The Crohn’s & Colitis Congress will take place on January 25-27, 2024, at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

According to the 2023-2024 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.

ImproveCareNow (ICN) is a Learning Health Network that enables patients, families, clinicians and researchers to work together to accelerate innovation, discovery and the application of new knowledge.

ICN’s Outcomes registry is a key enabler of new research and innovation for our community. To date, more than 27,000 patients have given their consent for their data to be used for research in support of ICN’s mission to improve outcomes for children and adolescents with IBD.