How the jazz medium can inform interprofessional health care teams in improving patient care

Introduction Interprofessional Health Care Teams (IPHCTs) are essential to provide cost-effective and efficient care to patients with complex illnesses, requiring the skills and expertise of many health care professionals. The jazz medium presents an instructive non-medical analogy. Methods We present evidence-based models to compare how effective groups perform in both health care teams and jazz ensembles. Results The jazz ensemble has implicit dependence on the salient features of leadership, individual attributes, creativity, synchronization, comprehension, communication, self-improvement, group dynamics, and economy of means. Conclusions Features of jazz parallel those of the IPHCT and inform medicine how teams can thrive at the highest levels, using characteristics attributed to effective team functioning. Incorporating jazz educators and their approaches to music into IPHCT training may be a strategy to improve patient outcomes.