The ImproveCareNow Network, which brings together patients, families, clinicians and researchers to improve knowledge and outcomes related to Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is the winner of the 2016 Drucker Prize.
Administered annually since 1991, The Drucker Prize, formerly known as the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation, is given to a social-sector organization that demonstrates Drucker’s definition of innovation—“change that creates a new dimension of performance.” The judges look for programs that demonstrate a strong mix of current effectiveness and future promise.
The ImproveCareNow Network engages stakeholders in a learning health network that provides real-time quality improvement, research and community-building for children with these conditions.
Since ImproveCareNow began in 2007, it has increased the number of kids in remission with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis in the network. To do this, participating centers collect standardized data during all clinic visits, monitor individual and overall performance, compare outcomes, and share the best evidence and tools for helping patients with IBD get better faster, and stay well longer.
In the ImproveCareNow network, clinicians define model care guidelines, develop tools and processes to reduce variation and ensure all patients receive optimal care.
The Drucker Prize judges were particularly impressed that the ImproveCareNow Network has developed a high-performance, beneficiary-centered program. The judges also recognized the organization’s impressive results, patient focus and future promise to further leverage the discipline of innovation.
“ImproveCareNow’s accomplishments are the result of hundreds of patients, families, clinicians and researchers working together with an unrelenting focus on continuously improving outcomes,” said Richard Colletti, M.D., ImproveCareNow executive network director and pediatric gastroenterologist at the University of Vermont Children's Hospital, in a prepared statement.
In a statement, Zach First, executive director of the Drucker Institute, said, “The ImproveCareNow Network has improved outcomes for nearly 25,000 patients across 90 participating care centers. Among its impressive innovations is the way it has effectively combined the creative energies and expertise of so many who were previously unconnected with each other.”
“The Drucker Institute’s application process caused us to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of our current system. And we have already begun applying some of what we learned,” said Peter A. Margolis, M.D., Ph.D., ImproveCareNow executive scientific director, and co-director of the James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, in a statement. Cincinnati Children’s is a strategic and supportive partner of the ImproveCareNow Network.
