Teams Run on Trust: From Surgery to Formula One
When a paediatric cardiac surgeon watched a Formula One pit stop on television, it sparked a collaboration that would help reshape how healthcare teams approach patient handovers. The lessons learned from a very simple start have been replicable across many industries, and the principles have proved sustainable. This talk traces a journey from the operating theatre at Great Ormond Street Hospital to the pit lanes of Ferrari, revealing how truth, trust and transparency can fundamentally improve patient safety.
Key themes from the panel
- Truth and trust as non-negotiable foundations. Effective care demands truth-telling, and the first and most important person to tell the truth to is yourself.
- The true scale of team dependency revealed. A single paediatric cardiac operation required 29 people. If one of them hadn’t turned up, the job scheduled for three months could not have been done.
- A four-fold reduction in errors. The team achieved a four times reduction in multiple errors, and many more individual errors were reduced.
- Structured handovers replacing dangerous habits. The team learned to have a limited and structured conversation during critical patient transfers.
- Examine how lessons from Formula One have been applied across healthcare and other high-performing industries.
- Enduring relevance. The work is still relevant, being replicated, and hospitals continue visiting Ferrari to learn these principles.
