While their defining characteristic is the creation of an index of utility (or strength of preference) they may also be used, like non-utility generic instruments such as the SF-36, to measure health related quality of life (HRQoL) or to provide health profiles.
Some works optimize user utilities based on generic utility functions.
Generic health related quality of life (HRQoL) measures can, in some circumstances, assist with inter-disease group comparisons [ 5] but cost-utility analyses require generic utility HRQoL instruments [ 1].
In this chapter, three case studies are presented to illustrate ASAP utility in generic drug development.
The measurements included the number of patient displacements due to disease, number of patient hospital stays and the number of prescriptions of drugs of low therapeutic utility and generic drug prescriptions by doctors.
The exploratory trial will only assess costs, since for cost effectiveness purposes a utility based generic measure of health status such as the EuroQol (EQ-5D) [ 34] would be needed to produce an incremental cost effectiveness ratio which could allow comparison with other interventions.
Perhaps due to the large pain burden and detrimental impact on various domains of health, the overall HRQoL found in FM patients, especially in those with severe form of disease, was not only worse than that of the general population but also in comparison with many other chronic conditions reported in the utility and generic HRQoL literature [ 7].
The goal of the study is to analyse the effects of the thematic network UniNet in the following four outcomes of a primary care medical practice in a rural area: patients' referrals, number of hospital stays, use of prescriptions of drugs of low therapeutic utility and generic drug prescriptions.
Utilities of generic health states allow comparisons of the effects on quality of life of different health-care interventions in different diseases.
HSUVs are used to calculate Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) to account for the quality of life of a patient (measured using health utilities from a generic preference based utility instrument such as the EQ-5D) in a given health state and the time spent in that health state.
Here each, U i is a generic utility function and the sum of the utility functions amount to social welfare.
