Clinical equipoise

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Clinical equipoise, also known as the principle of equipoise, provides the ethical basis for medical research involving randomly assigning patients to different treatment arms. The term was first used in this way by B. Freedman in 1987, in the article 'Equipoise and the ethics of clinical research'.[1] Unlike uncertainty principle that relies on individual belief of researcher, clinical equipoise explicitly states that there must "exists . . . an honest, professional disagreement among expert clinicians about the preferred treatment".[2] Even if the clinician personally prefers one arm over the other, randomization is still ethically sound when there are other responsible and competent clinicians who disagree.

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[edit] References

  1. ^ Freedman, B. (1987)'Equipoise and the ethics of clinical research'. The New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 317 (3):141-145.
  2. ^ Freedman, B. (1987)'Equipoise and the ethics of clinical research'. The New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 317 (3):141-145.

[edit] External links