Pediatrics News 2026
PedCom Update March 2026
The IBUS Pediatric Committee would like to wholeheartedly thank Dr. Hien Huyhn, who chaired his last PedCom meeting during ECCO last February. During his four-year chairmanship, Hien has tirelessly advocated to expand pediatric IUS training opportunities. He built research collaborations and oversaw several papers published by PedCom. Dr. Bart Koot will continue leading the work of PedCom as the newly
elected chair.
We warmly welcome Dr. Lina Maria Felipez from Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami (USA) – our newly elected member. Dr. Felipez has already been actively collaborating with PedCom to advance educational initiatives in Latin America and brings great enthusiasm to the committee’s work.
Dr. Lina Felipez
Ongoing Efforts
The preparation for two research projects is ongoing. The development of evidence-based consensus statements on IUS remission and response in pediatric IBD, and the identification and prioritization of pediatric research gaps for IUS in pediatric IBD.
New Pediatric Training Center for Module 2
Welcome, University Hospital Giessen! As more pediatric gastroenterologists complete IBUS Module 1, there is a need for Module 2 training in centers that perform pediatric IUS. We encourage our pediatric colleagues to apply to become an IBUS training center to support the increasing number of pediatric doctors seeking training in intestinal ultrasound (IUS).
You can apply here: IBUS Training Center Application.
PedCom Update November 2025
New Pediatric Training Center for Module 2
Welcome Nicklaus Children's Hospital, in Miami, USA and AL Jalila Children's Specialty Hospital in Dubai!
We encourage our pediatric colleagues to apply to become an IBUS training center to support the increasing number of pediatric doctors seeking training in intestinal ultrasound (IUS). You can apply here: IBUS Training Center Application.
Ongoing Efforts
We are working on developing consensus statements on IUS remission and response as well as research gaps in pediatric IUS. Dr. Bart Koot will lead a survey to identify the pediatric research gaps that will guide consensus development as well PedCom’s scientific focus in the next years.
Announcement
There will be a specific hands-on pediatric component in the IBUS Module 1 Workshop, taking place from Friday, April 10th, 2026, to Saturday, April 11th, 2026, in Calgary, Canada (https://ibus-group.org/event/workshop-calgary-2026/).
PedCom Update July 2025
New Pediatric Training Center for Module 2
Welcome, Seattle Children’s Hospital!
We encourage our pediatric colleagues to apply to become an IBUS training center to support the increasing number of pediatric doctors seeking training in intestinal ultrasound (IUS). You can apply here: IBUS Training Center Application.
Ongoing Efforts
As part of a new initiative within IBUS, PedCom has appointed Drs. Bart Koot and Jennifer DeBruyn to serve as liaisons for SciCom and EduCom, respectively. With this, we aim to increase collaboration, alignment of goals, and scientific output across the committees.
We are working on developing consensus statements on IUS remission and response in pediatric IBD patients. In addition, Dr. Bart Koot will lead an effort to identify the pediatric research gaps that will guide PedCom’s scientific focus in the next years.
Exciting discussions with Prof. Luis Caicedo and Dr. Lina Maria Felipez from Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami are ongoing. The purpose of these talks is to explore how IBUS can support initiatives in Latin America to increase the use of intestinal ultrasound in clinical settings. These efforts may one day support more Spanish-speaking adult and pediatric gastroenterologists in Latin America.
Announcement
The 1st pediatric Module 1 will be at the NASPGHAN Annual Meeting in November. It will be a hybrid module hosted by IBUS and iUSCAN, led by Drs. Amelia Kellar and Mike Dolinger, both previous PedCom members.
PedCom Update April 2025
The IBUS PedCom would like to express sincere gratitude to the departing committee members: Mallory Chavannes, Michael Dolinger, and Amelia Kellar. Each of them has made a significant impact on the committee’s work and progress.
At the same time, PedCom warmly welcomes the newly elected members: Fortunata Civitelli (Italy), Ruben Colman (USA), Jennifer deBruyn (Canada), and Bart Koot (the Netherlands).
Fortunata Civitelli
Ruben Colman
Jennifer deBruyn
Bart Koot
With the addition of new members, new roles will be assigned to help strengthen PedCom's connection with other groups and initiatives within IBUS, including:
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A representative to liaise with the Scientific Committee
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A representative to liaise with the Education Committee
ECCO 2025 in Berlin was a great success. The Committee held several productive meetings to further pediatric research and education:
Spanish Outreach & PedCom Meeting
In alignment with IBUS' mission to increase the global use of intestinal ultrasound (IUS), PedCom is collaborating with Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami. Prof. Luis Caicedo Oquendo and Dr. Lina Maria Felipez are exploring the possibility of becoming an IBUS-certified training center. This initiative aims to support pediatric IBD physicians and Spanish-speaking doctors interested in completing Module 2. Further collaborations with EduCom, LASPGHAN, and NASPGHAN are being developed.
PedCom Meeting with P-ECCO and ESPGHAN
Representatives from PedCom, P-ECCO, and ESPGHAN met on the sidelines of the congress. It became evident that there is a shortage of international educational and scientific opportunities in the pediatric field. The organizations agreed to join forces to promote and integrate both areas moving forward.
New Pediatric Publication
Under the leadership of Amelia Kellar, PedCom has contributed to the following publication:
“Defining Normal Bowel Wall Thickness in Children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Deep Remission”
This work was published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (JPGN).
You can find the publication here.
PedCom Update December 2024
We are pleased to see that more pediatric gastroenterologists are stepping up to become trainers. We encourage any pediatric gastroenterologists who have completed IBUS IUS training and are actively performing IUS, have done so for more than 1 year and are performing 10 or more IUS a week to apply to become trainers. Further criteria and assessments for trainers are being developed with EduCom and ColCom.
From a research perspective, the 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 has now been submitted and is under review.
We have also just launched our retrospective review of IUS in children admitted with acute severe ulcerative colitis. If you have patients to contribute, please contact one of the PedCom committee members or Chair for more information.
We are also excited to announce the first PedCom webinar coming up in January on discussing normal and abnormal bowel wall thickness in children with IBD. More information will follow soon!
PedCom Update October 2024
As per the previous newsletter, as we increasingly have more pediatric gastroenterologists completing IBUS Module 1 there is a huge need for Module 2 training in centres that do pediatric IUS.
We continue to encourage pediatric gastroenterologists who are actively performing IUS, have done so for more than 1 year and are performing 10 or more IUS a week to apply to become trainers. Criteria and assessments for trainers are being developed. From a research perspective, the 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 has now been submitted.
We have just launched our retrospective review of IUS in children admitted with acute severe ulcerative colitis. If you have patients to contribute, please contact one of the PedCom committee members or chair for more information.
PedCom Update March 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 have consistently more pediatric gastroenterologists completing IBUS Module 1 and increasing demand for Module 2 training in centers that perform 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 constitutes normal bowel wall thickness of a healed mucosa in children diagnosed with Crohn's disease who have normal colonoscopy and/or MRE. We are also actively seeking funding for a multicentre prospective study in IUS on those with pediatric Crohn's disease.
PedCom Update 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: [email protected]
PedCom Update 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.