News

The ImproveCareNow Board of Directors has announced the creation of The Richard B. Colletti Family Fund, which will provide funds to offset the cost of sending patients and parents to ICN Community Conferences. The fund was established in honor of outgoing President and Executive Network Director, Dr. Richard B. Colletti; in recognition of his personal and professional leadership and continuous commitment to children and families living with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Dr. Richard B. Colletti will officially step down from ImproveCareNow on July 31, 2020.

ImproveCareNow stakeholders, including clinicians, patients, parents and leadership have been working together with small scale to improve the ICN network’s governance of data with goals of ensuring the safety of our community, the progression of research, and the achievement of quality improvement aims. This collaboration launched at the Spring 2019 Community Conference and the first phase is now complete, which culminated in the “Governing the ImproveCareNow Network” report.

We are pleased to announce the ImproveCareNow Data Management Team, with input from the Parent Working Group and Patient Advisory Council, has prepared and released the 2019 ImproveCareNow Annual Data Report. This report aims to present a brief summary of the patient data captured in the ICN Registry - a disease-specific, enhanced health registry that has been built by and for the ICN Network.

Racial inequity is a public health crisis. Every person deserves culturally sensitive and competent health care. ImproveCareNow believes that every patient and caregiver should get what they need when they need it.

We must do better together.

On Wednesday, May 27, 2020 ImproveCareNow announced the decision to transition their in-person Fall Community Conference to a Live Online event. The decision was made jointly by the ImproveCareNow Directors and the Community Conference Planning Team, in consideration of the continued uncertain circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The ImproveCareNow Board of Directors has announced that Kristin M. Howe, DC, MHA has accepted the position of Executive Director of ImproveCareNow. Dr. Howe will begin her new position on June 1, 2020 and will be working closely with ImproveCareNow Co-founder and Executive Network Director, Richard Colletti, MD as he prepares to step down later in July.

The ImproveCareNow Board of Directors announced today that Shehzad Saeed, MD, FAAP, AGAF has accepted the position of Clinical Director of ImproveCareNow. Dr. Saeed will begin his new duties on May 1, 2020, to begin onboarding to the role with ImproveCareNow Co-founder and Executive Network Director, Dr. Richard B. Colletti.

The ImproveCareNow Board of Directors has announced that Howard Baron, MD, a member and Secretary-Treasurer of the Board, has accepted the additional, newly created position of Transition Director. Dr. Baron will serve for one year, during the transition of a new ImproveCareNow Clinical Director and an ImproveCareNow Executive Director.

On Friday, March 6, 2020 ImproveCareNow Executive Directors, Dr. Richard Colletti and Dr. Peter Margolis, announced the decision to move the in-person Community Conference scheduled for April 2-4, to a Live Online Community Conference on April 3.

ImproveCareNow has had enormous success since it began 13 years ago, including increasing remission rates for thousands of youth with IBD, transforming how pediatric IBD care is being 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 Annual Update, which includes highlights and achievements from 2019 and plans for our continued work to improve health, care and costs for young people with IBD in 2020 and beyond.