Aging of the general population continues to increase the burden of cardiovascular disease on our society and there remains a substantial gap in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Our main objectives were to improve medical decision making by examining new prognostic measures. We used Ontario administrative data from 1992 to 2002 that included patients' first admission for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or heart failure (HF) for analysis. Median life expectancy was 10 years for AMI patients but only 3 years for HF patients. Among patients older than 65 years of age, gains in median life expectancy were 4 years for beta blocker in AMI but only 4 months for ACE inhibitors in HF. Life expectancy gains progressively increase larger with improving prognosis of these patients. In providing additional information on prognosis and expected benefits for therapies, we believe our approach may assist in medical decision-making.