Froud, Robert
Grant, Mary
Burton, Kim
Foss, Jonathan
Ellard, David R.
Seers, Kate
Smith, Deb
Barillec, Mariana
Patel, Shilpa
Haywood, Kirstie
Underwood, Martin
Funding for this research was provided by:
Versus Arthritis (21320)
Article History
Received: 9 September 2019
Accepted: 10 March 2020
First Online: 22 April 2020
Ethics approval and consent to participate
: The study received favourable opinion from the London–Stanmore National Research Ethics Committee (17/LO/0919) on July 19, 2017. All participants provided informed written consent.
: Not applicable.
: RF and MU are directors of a university spin-out company which provides ePRO data collection services and has administered discrete choice experiments. RF, MU, and JF are shareholders in this company. RF is chief investigator on the Versus Arthritis grant that funded this project. MU was Chair of the NICE accreditation advisory committee until March 2017 for which he received a fee. He is chief investigator or co-investigator on multiple previous and current research grants from the UK National Institute for Health Research, Versus Arthritis and is a co-investigator on grants funded by the Australian NHMRC. He is an NIHR senior investigator. He has received travel expenses for speaking at conferences from the professional organisations hosting the conferences. He and RF are part of an academic partnership with Serco Ltd related to return to work initiatives. He is a co-investigator on a study receiving support in kind from Orthospace Ltd. He has accepted honoraria from CARTA and Queen Mary University of London. He is an editor of the NIHR journal series, and a member of the NIHR Journal Editors Group, for which he receives a fee. He has published multiple papers on chronic pain, some of which are referenced in this paper. DE is an associate professor in Warwick Clinical Trials unit, and he reports no conflicts of interest. KS is a principal or co-investigator on multiple previous and current research grants, including from the NIHR in the UK. She has published multiple papers on chronic pain, some of which are referenced in this paper. SP is a director and shareholder of a company which provides psychological treatments for those with chronic conditions including long-term pain. KB works freelance and may receive fees for his consultancy role on some research projects. MB worked for Serco who offered 10 placements. All other authors declared that they have no competing interest.