Table 1A.

Descriptions of role and research activities for Phase 1

Role	Research activity
Patient researcher	Patient with long‐term autoimmune disease and research skills. Leading the focus groups and developing the draft treatment expectation measure.
Focus group patient facilitator	Patient with RA for >25 years, cofacilitated focus groups following formal written and verbal instructions by patient researcher, and collaborated in Phases 1 and 2 of the study with the patient researcher.
Departmental patient experts	Patients with RA (> 5 years) who have an honorary contract with the academic Rheumatology Department who contribute to departmental research projects.
Pilot focus group	Patients with RA who helped to refine the interview schedule and develop first draft dimensions of the draft treatment expectation measure.
Main focus group	Patients with RA who helped generate the additional dimensions of the draft treatment expectation measure and contributed to the item reduction.
Expert panel	Group of patients with RA selected from the two main focus groups to comment on the comprehensibility, feasibility, acceptability, language and format of the draft treatment expectation measure (MAPLe‐RA).
Independent expert panel	Patients with RA who have not participated in the previous focus groups and have professional research experience. They provided final objective views about the new treatment expectation measure.