Pediatrics News 2024
PedCom has recently elected our 5th member Katarina Mitrova from the Czech Republic who has over 10 years of experience in doing IUS. In terms of IUS training, we increasingly have more pediatric gastroenterologists completing IBUS Module 1, there is a huge need for Module 2 training in centers that do pediatric IUS. We continue to encourage pediatric gastroenterologists who are actively performing IUS and have done so for more than 1 year and performing 20 or more IUS a week to apply to become trainers. From a research perspective, we are drafting a retrospective manuscript on what is a normal bowel wall thickness of a healed mucosa in children with Crohn's disease with normal colonoscopy and/or MRE. We are also actively seeking for funding for a multicentre prospective study in IUS in those with pediatric Crohn's disease.
Pediatrics News 2023
The PedCom has done a survey of IBUS members currently active using bowel US in children and the number is still small and there is a huge need to expand the user base and training sites. Criteria to become a trainer and training site will be made available soon. The committee has been busy collecting mucosal healing data of children with Crohn's disease in the spring and summer. An abstract was accepted for oral presentation at the North American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology hepatology in San Diego - Oct 2023. We are also in discussion to develop an IUS registry for registry with pediatric IBD - multiple hurdles still need to be overcome including type of data to be collected, where to house data to data transfer agreement. We will be recruiting for another member of the committee for 2024 for a 3 year term. If interested please send a short letter of motivation (< 1 page) and a short CV (< 2 pages) via email to the IBUS Office: office@bowel-ultrasound.org
Pediatrics News 2022
We are very excited that PedCom was formed in the year. The committee currently has four members. Dr. Hien Huynh from Stollery Children's Hospital, University of Alberta, Canada, is the current chair with three other members – Dr. Mallory Chavannes, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, USA; Dr. Michael Dolinger, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA, and Dr. Amelia Kellar, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA.
The Governing Board member on the committee is Dr. Kerri Novak from the University of Calgary, Canada. We meet virtually four times a year and one as a face-to-face meeting annually at ECCO. Our objectives are to develop standardized intestinal US (IUS) protocols for the diagnosis and monitoring of IBD that are specific to children, to organize, promote, sponsor international, multicenter, research collaboration in IUS in pediatric IBD as well as to establish an education and training curriculum specific to IUS in children for pediatric gastroenterologists.
Some of our short-term goals are to identify and certified pediatric IBUS-trained pediatric gastroenterologists in order to expand the number of training centers for module 2, to publish an approach to pediatric IUS in our main pediatric GI journal - JPGN, contribute to pediatric-focused IBUS webinars as well as developing standardized pediatric content in module 1. For our long-term goals, we plan to establish an international multicenter, pediatric IUS research consortium that is amenable to expansion as more pediatric gastroenterologists become certified through IBUS.
Specifically, we plan to define normal and abnormal IUS parameters in children, including but not limited to: bowel wall thickness, hyperemia, echo stratification that are specific to age and developmental status. In addition we plan to generate pediatric-focused IBUS curriculum/modules. Also, we will support and enhance IUS education at international pediatric IBD conferences through hands-on sessions and interactive lectures with IBUS-trained gastroenterologists. With more IBUS-trained IUS pediatric gastroenterologists, We anticipate that our committee's size will increase to achieve our ambitious goals.