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What is “Clinical Equipoise” in Medicine?

October 18, 2022 1:00 AM

Equipoise

[By staff reporters]

Clinical equipoise, also known as the principle of equipoise, provides the ethical basis for medical research that involves assigning patients to different treatment arms of a clinical trial.

The term was first used by Benjamin Freedman in 1987, although references to its use go back to 1795 by Dr. Edward Jenner. In short, clinical equipoise means that there is genuine uncertainty in the expert medical community over whether a treatment will be beneficial. This applies also for off-label treatments performed before or during their required clinical trials.

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