The Confederation of Critical Care Trials (CoReCCT) brings together four clinical trials along the pathway of care of patients with acute respiratory failure in the NHS. Due to the similarities in the patient population of these 4 trials and the outcomes they collect from patients, they have been joined together under the confederation.

The primary aim of CoReCCT is to provide benefits in efficiency to participants, research staff, hospitals and the funder of the trials, improving both research efficiency as a whole, and cost effectiveness through out the lifetime of the trials. Furthermore CoReCCT offers more opportunities for patients to participate in research.  

The primary aim of the 4 clinical trials currently within CoReCCT, is to test the clinical and cost effectiveness of 4 interventional strategies on patient outcomes in adults in hospital with moderate to severe acute respiratory failure. These patients may require oxygen support or intubation and invasive mechanical ventilation.

For an overview of CoReCCT, please see our short 3-minute video:

For a full transcript of this video, please click hereLink opens in a new window

The interventional strategies offered by each trial occur both sequentially and concurrently along the clinical care pathway of a patient with respiratory failure e.g. A patient may first be eligible for the Awake Prone trial; they may later become eligible for PROTECT Airways trial. The PROTECT Airways intervention may overlap with the RELEASE intervention, or it may overlap with the NAVA intervention. Therefore a patient may be recruited into multiple CoReCCT trials either one after each other, or at the same time.

Each trial has its own specific aims, eligibility criteria, recruitment target, interventional strategy and patient outcomes. Hospitals will be able to review all trials in CoReCCT and then select the trials they choose be involved in.

CoReCCT will recruit patients in the UK from Intensive Care Units and other hospital settings. Patients will be eligible to join a trial if they meet the eligibility criteria of that trial at a participating hospital. Patients may meet eligibility criteria for more than one trial in CoReCCT and can therefore be recruited to more than one trial during their hospital stay.

Data collection will be streamlined over the CoReCCT trials meaning relevant data will be collected once and shared across other CoReCCT trials the patient takes part in.