About the Authors

Wavne Rikkers

Contributed equally to this work with: Wavne Rikkers, Katrina Boterhoven de Haan, David Lawrence

wavne.rikkers@telethonkids.org.au

Affiliation Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Katrina Boterhoven de Haan

Contributed equally to this work with: Wavne Rikkers, Katrina Boterhoven de Haan, David Lawrence

Affiliation Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

David Lawrence

Contributed equally to this work with: Wavne Rikkers, Katrina Boterhoven de Haan, David Lawrence

Affiliation Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Anne McKenzie

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Perth, Australia

Kirsten Hancock

Affiliation Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Hayley Haines

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Perth, Australia

Daniel Christensen

Affiliation Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Stephen R. Zubrick

Affiliation Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Competing Interests

DL has worked with consumer advocate Rebecca Coghlan since 1998 on Duty to Care and other research, and was awarded the Health Consumer’s Council of Western Australia (HCC) certificate of excellence in 2001. He was an inaugural member of the Consumer and Community Advisory Council at the Telethon Kids Institute. AM is a life member of the HCC, and was Chairperson of the board of HCC 2009-2012. AM has been an advisor to National Health and Medical Research Council, through the Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF) in both the development of the model framework and resource pack released in 2005 and in developing a revised consumer and community participation statement yet to be released. AM has been employed as a consumer advocate and consumer liaison officer at the Telethon Kids Institute, and within the School of Population Health at The University of Western Australia since 2004. AM, in association with Bec Hanley of TwoCan Associates, provides training in consumer and community participation across Australia. DC, WR, and KBdH have been trained in consumer participation methods by AM and HH. HH has been employed as a consumer project officer at the Telethon Kids Institute and within the School of Population Health at The University of Western Australia since 2011. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Analyzed the data: WR KBDH DL. Wrote the paper: WR DL AM HH DC KH KBDH SZ. Conceived the original idea for the study: DC. Developed the study methodology: DL WR KBDH AM.