Sounding Board H OW TO

N apparent ethical dilemma arises when physi-cians consider enrolling their patients in ran-domized clinical trials. Suppose that a randomized clinical trial comparing two treatments is in progress, and a physician has an opinion about which treat-ment is better. The physician has a duty to promote the patient’s best medical interests and therefore seems to be obliged to advise the patient to receive the treatment that the physician prefers. This duty creates a barrier to the enrollment of patients in ran-domized clinical trials.1-10 Two strategies are often used to resolve the dilemma in favor of enrolling pa-tients in clinical trials