Developing and managing a team to participate in trials involving acute respiratory failure: advice for the inexperienced.
OBJECTIVE
Conducting large-scale clinical trials in the field of acute respiratory failure requires substantial collaboration. Teamwork is still in its infancy within the realm of clinical research. This review evaluates the need for and grassroots process of teamwork and considers the challenges facing teamwork in the specific context of conducting acute respiratory failure research today.


RESULTS
Acute respiratory failure research demands complex, interdependent tasks, dictating a teamwork approach. The team is comprised of a sponsor, a leader and members. The sponsor provides essential administrative support, the leader performs many of the functions of a traditional manager in addition to adopting three distinct roles of initiator, role model and coach, and members are selected not only on their technical expertise, but also on their problem-solving and interpersonal skills.


CONCLUSIONS
As large-scale (oftentimes international) multicenter trials are increasingly providing answers to our research questions, greater emphasis must be placed on team building within the clinical research environment. An urgent need for further work in this area is revealed. Critical care fellowships should integrate teamwork skills into the curriculum.
Arabi
Yaseen
Y
King Abdulaziz Medical City, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. yaseenarabi@yahoo.com
Ahmed
Qanta A
QA
D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003422:Critical Care; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012128:Respiratory Distress Syndrome