Using a large clinical database to assess the effectiveness of alfuzosin

Treatment utility can be defined as a combination of objective clinical efficacy and quality-of-life results (i.e. subjective criteria). It is a particularly useful concept in diseases such as benign prostatic hyperplasia where important differences may exist between the results of objective measurements and the assessment of subjective complaints and quality-of-life impairment. The collection of data regarding treatment utility involves the generation of large patient care databases which provide long-term data in representative, general practice, patient populations. Such data provide overall information for physicians, health care providers, patients, insurance companies and health care decision-makers and enable them to define the long-term effectiveness of each treatment. In addition, predictive or risk factors which may assist in appropriate clinical decision-making may be identified. Such data also provide cost/ utility information. Finally, the data could be used in daily practice to allow the physician to make rapid therapeutic decisions.