OBJECTIVE: To generate data about treatment patterns for patients with hypertension and/or dyslipidemia and to identify the number achieving a treatment goal according to international guidelines. The data collected will also be used to validate a new software program that the Outcomes Research department at Pfizer has developed. METHODS: Six clinics/doctors in three European countries (Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden) participated in this retrospective medical record review. For each patient visit, the available data from the previous 1-2 years was collected. Data collected included blood pressure measurements, lipid profiles, glucose levels, HbA1c, co-morbidities, and medications. Guidelines used in the analysis where: Hypertension - 1999 WHO–ISH guidelines for the management of hypertension. Hyperlipidemia- Recommendations of the Second Joint Task Force of European and other Societies on Coronary Prevention. RESULTS: Reviewing each patient’s last visit, 33 of 189 were at goal for hypertension or 17%. For lipids, 42 of 179 (32%) where at goal. 50% of patients diagnosed with diabetes had HbA1c below 7% at the last visit and 65% of them were at goal for lipids, but only 14% for hypertension. CONCLUSION: The number of patients found to be “at goal” in this study is far from being optimal, but it is similar to numbers seen in the literature. The software was found to function as expected by utilizing only the data that doctors routinely collect in their practice. The “at goal” information is valuable, because it allows health care providers to track over time one of the ‘factors’ that will be (and is being) used to measure the quality of the care they are providing. HMOs in the US can use the information gathered to create reports for NCQA and HEDIS and in the UK the new cardiovascular NSF standards have been incorporated into the software.