PHLB09H3 Lecture 10: PHLB09H3S LEC 10
Document Summary
Hellman and hellman: dilemma for researchers who use rcts because they are physician-scientists: as physicians: committed to acting in to benefit their patient. Patient might end up in a control group and this would not be treating the patient with the best treatment (beneficence). If a physician has no opinion is in a state of equipoise then she may offer to enroll patient in rct but this happens very rarely. Why would we be testing treatments against each other if we already knew one was better over the other. Two mistakes commonly made in connection with clinical equipoise: It relates only to a single factor: efficacy; equipoise for certain factors but not others. It refers to an individual physician"s point of view. It should be evaluated against the whole community. Medical community at large is not considered but if it were there would be a large state of equipoise, moreover it would be morally permissible to enroll patients in rct.
