Evidence suggests that teamwork failures contribute to poor outcomes in hospitals and that changes in healthcare delivery have at times worked against the development of effective healthcare teams. Doctors' engagement with the concept of healthcare teams, although variable, has generally been supportive and there have been several successful initiatives. However, lack of evidence on the critical components that improve the performance of healthcare teams impedes growth in our understanding and development of effective teams. In an endeavour to improve the function of healthcare teams through education and systems change, the psychology literature remains a useful framework for studying the critical components of team processes.