Discuss the concept of 'Equipoise' in the design of RCTs.

Instruction: Explain what is meant by 'Equipoise' and why it is essential for the ethical conduct of randomized controlled trials.

Context: This question assesses the candidate's understanding of the ethical considerations in RCTs, particularly the importance of uncertainty in the balance of benefits and harms of interventions.

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Clinical equipoise, in Freedman's formulation, concerns genuine uncertainty or disagreement within the informed expert medical community about the comparative therapeutic merits of the trial arms. It need not mean that every investigator has no preference or that benefits and harms are known to be exactly equal.

It helps explain why randomized comparison may be ethically defensible...

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