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The effective reduction of medical errors depends on an environment of safety for patients in both clinically based and systems-oriented arenas. Formal teamwork training is proposed as a systems approach that will achieve these ends. In a study conducted by (Dynamics Research Corporation,) weaknesses and error patterns in Emergency Department teamwork were assessed, and a prospective evaluation of a formal teamwork training intervention was conducted. Improvements were obtained in five key teamwork measures, and most importantly, clinical errors were significantly reduced.