An emerging science and praxis for research and practice teams.

BACKGROUNDA meta-trend, observable over the past severaldecades, is that work is being conducted increasinglyby teams. The proportion of scientiﬁc publicationsauthoredbygroupsratherthansoloauthorshasmorethandoubledinthepast50years[1,2].Asthevolumeofscientiﬁcknowledgehasexpandedovertime,ithasbecome increasingly difﬁcultfora single individual tohave deep expertise in multiple disciplines. Forexample, Galileo deﬁned modern physics while alsocreating the telescope that launched observationalastronomy,andDescartesshapedmodernphilosophywhilealsoinventinganalyticgeometry.ThesekindsofRenaissance era contributions made by individualsworking alone have become increasingly rare, and —we believe—for a good reason. Solving complexproblemsnowroutinelyrequirescollaborationamongexperts from different specialties working to reachshared understandings that integrate specializedknowledge bases [3, 4].In modern health care as well, solo practices aredwindling [5]. More than 50 % of practicing USphysicians are employed by hospitals or integratedcare systems, where they need to collaborate withother practitioners, and that number is expected torise to 75 % in the near future [6]. The rising costs ofequipment, legal compliance, insurance, and newIT requirements coupled with dwindling or stablereimbursements have made it increasingly challeng-ing for sole practitioners to stay aﬂoat ﬁnancially.However, the movement toward team-based care isdriven by more than ﬁnancial exigency; its aim isalso to provide higher quality care.Interprofessional teams are integral to new mod-els of care implementation that emerged as part ofUS health care reform. The so-called “patient-centered health home” elevates the role of thepatient in health decision-making and encouragespartnership with primary care providers aroundshared goals [7]. Chief responsibility to coordinatecare among stakeholders is ascribed to primarycare, with debate still ongoing about which memberof the primary care team is best suited to assume thecoordination role (e.g., primary care physician,nurse, physician assistant, and social worker).Relevant stakeholders include the patient, family,and caregivers, as well as health care generalists,specialists, residential placements, and the commu-nity. Health care professionals are expected to sharedata and to optimize their management of theprimary care team, such that all health professionalsare communicating effectively and working at thetop of their training. Good evidence suggests that,when these conditions can be attained, interprofes-sional team-based care provides higher quality andmore efﬁcient care delivery, in addition to being lesscostly. Effective team-based care has been shown toimprove patient satisfaction, reduce patient waitingtime, decrease emergency room use and rehospital-ization, and reduce cost per patient while improvingpatient satisfaction [7–9].There is growing consensus that solutions tocomplex scienti ﬁc and practical problems bene tfrom the efforts of specialists from diverse back-grounds working across disciplinary silos. Mountingevidencefromorganizational,management,andteamresearch supports the premise that, when done well,cross-disciplinary science and interprofessional prac-tice teams can produce more innovative, moreimpactful results, as compared to solo individuals orteamswhose members represent asingle disciplineorprofession. The purpose of this special section is tohighlight new developments and contributions in-volving the use of a team-based approach to facilitatebehavioralmedicineresearchandpracticetranslation.THE SCIENCE OF TEAM SCIENCEConceptual and theoretical models are needed tohelp organize the behavioral, social, organizational,and management domains of knowledge that in-form the emerging science of team science (SciTS).Delineation of models that abstract beyond a localevidence base enables the validity of theoreticalprinciples to be tested against new observations.Generalizable principles that stand up across di-verse contexts serve as building blocks for aconceptual framework. A theoretical conceptualiza-tion that explains existing evidence generates newscientiﬁc hypotheses and supports translation fromresearch to practice and policy applications.Drawing from a range of literatures, Hall andcolleagues [10] present a four-phase model oftransdisciplinary research. After outlining the model's