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.