The Awake Prone study is aiming to find out if lying on your front (awake prone positioning), compared with standard care (sitting up in bed), reduces the chance that someone will go on a ventilator. We are inviting people to take part who are in hospital with respiratory failure and who are currently receiving a moderate or high amount of oxygen.

Doctors and other healthcare professional know that lying on your front is helpful if you have COVID-19, but do not currently know if awake prone positioning is helpful when you need oxygen for other conditions. This is what the Awake Prone study aims to find out.

In the study, one group of patients will lie in the awake prone position for at least 8 hours a day for up to five days. Another group of patients will continue to receive standard care. We will then compare how well each group recovers to see which treatment works best. Which of these two group patients are allocated to will be decided by chance.

Awake Prone is part of the Confederation of Critical Care Trials (CoReCCT). CoReCCT brings together 4 clinical trials that test key interventions for patients with acute respiratory failure; from interventions designed to prevent intubation, to interventions designed to reduce the time receiving invasive ventilation. To learn more, visit the CoReCCT webpage here.

If you're a health professional interested in your hospital taking part in Awake Prone, please watch our overview video and complete our feasibility questionnaire both found on the 'Information for Health Professionals' tab.

We aim to recruit 1708 participants

Tracheal intubation within 30-days of randomisation

1st January 2024 to 31st December 2028