The interview guide was piloted with two interviewees, one by telephone and one by email, from two different European countries.
We gave interviewees a choice of conducting the interview by telephone or face-to-face.
All individual interviewees were contacted by telephone by one of the research team to discuss the study and arrange the interview.
The potential interviewees were contacted by telephone by members of the consortium, an appointment was made for a personal interview, and in a few cases where the distance between the partner and the interviewee was great e.g. Argentina, a telephone interview was held.
All interviewees were contacted by telephone before the interview by the project coordinator to assess eligibility (based on severity and date of occurrence of the incident), clarify project information, obtain consent, and determine whether the interview would be conducted face to face, audio or video recorded, or over the telephone.
Some interviewees were followed up by telephone to complement missing information.
If the interviewees refused to respond by telephone, they were asked to answer a written version of the questionnaire.
Each site's study steering committee provided a list of potential interviewees, whom we contacted by telephone to recruit for the study.
Interviews were face-to-face or by telephone in each interviewee's preferred location (eg, home or clinic room in urology centres) and ranged from 8 min (ProtecT patient, third interview) to 1 h and 36 min (patients), with most lasting between 30 and 60 min; and from 20 min to 1 hs and 5 min (health professionals).
Interviewees were conducted in person or by telephone, according to participant preference.
