All attempts will be made to gain informed written consent directly from the patient.
Research nurses (ReNs), not clinicians, will screen patients on a daily basis, gain informed consent and perform randomisation for each patient at the time of study entry.
Those found to be potentially eligible will be invited to attend a baseline assessment prior to the planned arthroscopy to confirm eligibility and gain informed consent to participate.
At the research assessment visit the local physiotherapy assessor/trial nurse will perform a more detailed eligibility screen, explain the study, gain informed written consent to randomisation and conduct a baseline research interview and examination.
From this point, contact information of the volunteers were referred to one of the investigators (GH or HV), or their designated research assistant, who would arrange for a meeting to gain informed written consent and initiate the photovoice and photo-assisted interview process.
Doctors are obliged to be honest about a drug's side effects – they need to gain "informed consent" – but that is a fuzzy concept when the information itself could make someone sicker.
