Development, implementation and user experience of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) dialysis dashboard.

Background: Adults with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring chronic dialysis continue to suffer from poor health outcomes and represent a population rightfully targeted for quality improvement. Electronic dashboards are increasingly used in healthcare to facilitate quality measurement and improvement. However, detailed descriptions of the creation of healthcare dashboards are uncommonly available and formal inquiry into perceptions, satisfaction, and utility by clinical users has been rarely conducted, particularly in the context of dialysis care.

Ex-vivo uses and applications of cytokines for adoptive immunotherapy in cancer.

Harnessing the power of the immune system to eliminate infection and cancer is a long-standing goal in clinical immunology. The development of a robust immune response to foreign antigen relies, in part, on communication between cellular components of the immune system. The proteins involved in governing the magnitude and longevity of an immune response are collectively called cytokines.

Large-scale expansion of cytomegalovirus-specific cytotoxic T cells in suspension culture.

Clinical trials in recent years involving the adoptive transfer of antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) have shown promise in restoring immunity against viral infection and reducing tumor burden in patients with solid and hematological malignancies. However, the large cell number required to achieve efficacy, 10(9) to 10(11), makes routine application of adoptive immunotherapy impractical. Investigation into new methods of CTL expansion may be useful in addressing this problem.