Emergency medicine (EM) is a team-based specialty, where a diverse group works together to rapidly deliver acute, unscheduled patient care. In contrast to traditional teams that have the luxury of time for their members to build rapport, teams in the emergency department (ED) change every day.

Harvard professor Amy C. Edmondson coined the word “teaming” to refer to the dynamic coordination of individuals fluidly adapting to a constantly changing environment and working together without a fixed structure.^1,2 As Edmondson described, ED teams disband almost as quickly as they are assembled. Her use of “teaming” as a verb aptly captures the fast-paced, flexible nature of teamwork in the ED. Crucial to the success of teaming is the ability for technology to stay as dynamic and fluid as the members involved.

Although technology like electronic health records (EHRs) were initially introduced as tools for improving team communication and streamlining information sharing, they have instead often isolated ED teams, siloing clinicians, who are hunched over keyboards rather than communicating at the bedside.³

Now, we find ourselves at the forefront of a new disruptive technology: artificial intelligence (AI).

AI stands to transform ED workflows, offering potential efficiencies that could enhance care delivery in this unpredictable environment. When designed with the pillars of teaming in mind (workload management, interdisciplinary problem solving, and psychological safety), the implementation of AI tools could significantly improve ED care delivery and may allow teams to function better.⁴    

Can AI Help with Teaming?

AI started to make its mark in the ED by maximizing the efficiency of certain tasks like patient triage, clinical presentation diagnosis, mortality prediction, clinical decision making, and operational workflow management (see Figure 1).^5–10 These tools expedite administrative tasks such as recording patient encounters, facilitating quick retrieval of EHR data, and identifying incidental findings on imaging; they even play a role in shared decision making.^11-14 As AI automates these routine tasks, physicians may be able to leave the computer screen and re-engage on the floor with the ED team.

Lessons Learned from EHRs

Although EHRs enabled streamlined administrative tasks, they also eroded aspects of team cohesion.^15,16 Reduced face-to-face interaction led to decreased psychological safety and trust, and flaws in EHR design hindered usability, leading to frustration and errors like selecting the wrong patient.^17,18 Rather than receiving the right information at the right time, emergency physicians now spend inordinate amounts of time sorting through often irrelevant information.