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Abstract As the need to tackle complex clinical and societal problems rises, researchers are increasingly taking on a translational approach. This approach, which seeks to integrate theories, methodologies, and frameworks from various disciplines across a team of researchers, places emphasis on translation of findings in order to offer practical solutions to real-world problems. While translational research leads to a number of positive outcomes, there are also a multitude of barriers to conducting effective team science, such as effective coordination and communication across the organizational, disciplinary, and even geographic boundaries of science teams. Given these barriers to success, there is a significant need to establish team interventions that increase science team effectiveness as translational research becomes the new face of science. This review is intended to provide translational scientists with an understanding of barriers to effective team science and equip them with the necessary tools to overcome such barriers. We provide an overview of translational science teams, discuss barriers to science team effectiveness, demonstrate the lacking state of current interventions, and present recommendations for improving interventions in science teams by applying best practices from the teams and groups literature across the four phases of transdisciplinary research. 

PURPOSE: Despite decades of effort, burnout among physicians remains elevated compared with that of other working populations, and it yields catastrophic consequences, including medical errors and physician suicide. Burnout leaves oncologists feeling like they are alone, but this is not the case—it affects everyone. To effectively address burnout, it is not enough to look only at oncologists; instead, we must include all those involved in the delivery of cancer care. With this aim, we present an overview of the organizational science strategies and initial evidence for the value of a comprehensive, team-focused approach to addressing oncology provider burnout. METHODS: We describe the development of a team-focused burnout intervention approach, implemented for oncology providers, which focuses on the importance of encouraging communication and psychological safety to reduce feelings of isolation and fragmentation. We discuss the initial findings from 1 such team-based initiative currently underway within an academic medical center, presenting data from 409 cancer care providers embedded in 30 oncology units participating in this intervention approach. RESULTS: Preliminary results demonstrate that units that integrated a team-focused intervention for burnout reported significantly higher levels of teamwork and lower levels of burnout. We also describe lessons learned and recommendations for implementing this type of intervention on the basis of best practices from organizational science. CONCLUSION: This approach can positively affect the delivery of cancer care, interprofessional relationships among oncology staff, and the well-being of both patients and providers. Treating physician burnout alone will treat 1 symptom of the overall issue of burnout in oncology. As burnout pulls oncology clinicians apart, our solution must be to bring them together. 

Many important contexts requiring teamwork, including health care, space exploration, national defense, and scientific discovery, present important challenges that cannot be addressed by a single team working independently. Instead, the complex goals these contexts present often require effectively coordinated efforts of multiple specialized teams working together as a multiteam system (MTS). For almost 2 decades, researchers have endeavored to understand the novelties and nuances for teamwork and collaboration that ensue when teams operate together as “component teams” in these interdependent systems. In this special issue on the settings of teamwork, we aim to synthesize what is known thus far regarding teamwork situated in MTS contexts and offer new directions and considerations for developing, maintaining, and sustaining effective collaboration in MTSs. Our review of extant research on MTSs reveals 7 key lessons learned regarding teamwork situated in MTSs, but also reveals that much is left to learn about the science and practice of ensuring effective multiteam functioning. We elaborate these lessons and delineate 4 major opportunities for advancing the science of MTSs as a critical embedding context for collaboration and teamwork, now and in the future. 

Hospitals are plagued with a multitude of logistical challenges amplified by a time-sensitive and high intensity environment. These conditions have resulted in burnout among both doctors and nurses as they work tirelessly to provide critical care to patients in need. We propose a new machine-learning-powered matching mechanism that manages the surgeon-nurse-patient assignment process in an efficient way that saves time and energy for hospitals, enabling them to focus almost entirely on delivering effective care. Through this design, we show how incorporating artificial intelligence into management systems enables teams of all sizes to meaningfully coordinate in highly chaotic and complex environments. 

Meetings are routine in organizations, but their value is often questioned by the employees who must sit through them daily. The science of meetings that has emerged as of late provides necessary direction toward improving meetings, but an evaluation of the current state of the science is much needed. In this review, we examine current directions for the psychological science of workplace meetings, with a focus on applying scientific findings about the activities that occur before, during, and after meetings that facilitate success. We conclude with concrete recommendations and a checklist for promoting good meetings, as well as some thoughts on the future of the science of workplace meetings.