# Characterizing Disease Trajectory for Improving Treatment in Pediatric Crohn's Disease

> **NIH NIH R01** · CHILDREN'S HOSP OF PHILADELPHIA · 2021 · $616,841

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Crohn's disease (CD), a serious chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that was once
considered rare in the pediatric population, is recently recognized as one of the most important
chronic diseases that affect children and adolescents, with increasing incidence in youths of
varying ages. As childhood is a time of physical, emotional, and social maturation, onset of CD
in childhood can seriously delay growth, jeopardize mental health, and the negative impact may
last a lifetime. In current pediatric CD research, disease activity is commonly evaluated at pre-
specified time points post treatment for comparison of treatments and prediction of long-term
outcomes. Findings from these studies are based on snapshots of patients' responses, with
limited information on the temporal nature of disease progression. In addition, discrete analyses
of disease activity fail to provide insights on functional relationship between treatment and
growth, which is essential for selection of treatment to induce and maintain remission while
optimizing the patient's growth and well-being.
To fill this vital gap, we propose to 1) develop a series of statistical tools to characterize and
identify patterns of disease trajectory of pediatric CD (PCD), and 2) incorporate the temporal
information contained in disease trajectory for evaluation of treatments and prediction of long-
term outcomes. The deliverables of this project will contribute to comprehensive understanding
of PCD etiology, improvement of evidence-based treatment strategy for PCD patients, and may
lead to changes toward better clinical practice regarding the criteria for optimized care for PCD
patients. We will harness the large pediatric population from PEDSnet, a national pediatric
learning health system, to empower the research findings and impacts. The data come from
eight of the nation's largest pediatric health systems (including the Boston Children's Hospital,
Children's hospital of Philadelphia and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center), covering
more than 6 million children in total and 15 thousand with IBD diagnosis from 2009 to 2017.
Furthermore, new knowledge and open-source software generated from our research will be
integrated in real time with healthcare delivery systems to improve health care. Successful
development of this proposed research has a promise of direct impacting the PCD patients in
the PEDSnet and nationwide.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10151467
- **Project number:** 5R01HD099348-03
- **Recipient organization:** CHILDREN'S HOSP OF PHILADELPHIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Jing Huang
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $616,841
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-15 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10151467

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10151467, Characterizing Disease Trajectory for Improving Treatment in Pediatric Crohn's Disease (5R01HD099348-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10151467. Licensed CC0.

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