USING A LARGE CLINICAL DATABASE TO ASSESS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ALFUZOSIN

Treatment utility can be defined as a combination of objective clinica l 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 treat ment utility involves the generation of large patient care databases w hich provide long-term data in representative, general practice, patie nt populations. Such data provide overall information for physicians, health care providers, patients, insurance companies and health care d ecision-makers and enable them to define the long-term effectiveness o f each treatment. In addition, predictive or risk factors which may as sist in appropriate clinical decision-making may be identified. Such d ata also provide cost/utility information. Finally, the data could be used in daily practice to allow the physician to make rapid therapeuti c decisions.