Development and preliminary validation of the Patient Perceptions of Integrated Care survey.

Valid measures of the integration of patient care could provide rapid and accurate feedback on the successfulness of current efforts to improve health care delivery systems. This article describes the development and pilot testing of a new survey, based on a novel conceptual model, which measures the integration of patient care as experienced by patients. We administered the survey to 1,289 patients with multiple chronic conditions from one health system and received responses from 527 patients (43%).

Human dendritic cells induce tumor-specific apoptosis by soluble factors.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are the most potent antigen producing cells (APCs) for initiation of immune responses including anti-tumor immune responses. In previous reports, it has been shown that DCs efficiently take up and process apoptotic or necrotic bodies of tumor cells. It has also been shown that DCs pulsed with tumor cell apoptotic bodies, lysates or peptides generate potent anti-tumor immune responses.