Patients were contacted by volunteers and invited
to attend an informational session about the study.
One hundred ninety patients were contacted and
116 agreed to attend informational sessions. They
were conducted on a rolling basis, with several
sessions a week at various times, and the principal
investigator or an assistant presented details about
the study, distributed and explained informed consent
documents, and answered questions. One hundred
nine patients agreed to participate and signed
informed consent documents at the information
sessions (Figure 1). No compensation was offered
to volunteers.