title: Using a large clinical database to assess the effectiveness of alfuzosin.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Hôpital Tenon, Service d'Urologie, Paris, France.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lukacs
mesh_terms: D000317:Adrenergic alpha-Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000368:Aged; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003658:Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011788:Quality of Life; D011799:Quinazolines / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000317:Adrenergic alpha-Antagonists; D011799:Quinazolines; C047638:alfuzosin