ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the connection from one high hazard sector to another and demonstrates that lessons from aviation and aerospace do inform team communication in healthcare. Healthcare communication must necessarily be as complex as the domain that it is intended to control. Like its high hazard sector counterparts such as aviation, nuclear power generation, ground transportation, and the military, healthcare is typically risky, complex, uncertain, and time-pressured. Healthcare teams can also be fluid, shifting, can overlap, and include strangers as well as colleagues. Team communications as it is performed in aviation is often proposed as a model for healthcare to adopt. One of the reasons behind the popularity of "fixing" healthcare communications is that it is an available target. After all, facilities are costly to build and take a long time. Equipment is complex and requires specialized knowledge to develop and manufacture.
