Efficacy means the power or capacity to produce a desired effect or intended result, and it is used to describe how effective something is under ideal or controlled conditions. In medicine and pharmacology, efficacy refers to how well a drug or treatment works in clinical trials, for example a vaccine with 95 percent efficacy prevents disease in 95 percent of people studied under trial conditions, while effectiveness refers to how well it works in real world conditions. In general usage, efficacy means effectiveness, potency, or ability to accomplish a purpose, for example the efficacy of air sealing in reducing energy bills or the efficacy of a teaching method. The term comes from Latin efficacia meaning effectiveness. Efficacy is distinct from efficiency, efficacy is about whether something can produce an effect at all, while efficiency is about how much waste is involved in producing that effect. For instance, a furnace may have high efficacy in heating a home but low efficiency if it wastes much fuel. So efficacy answers the question does it work, while efficiency answers how well it works with minimal resources. It is a measure of success in achieving a goal.
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