Table 2.

Business team types and characteristics that inform MTT development. Business team types can inform development of an MTT in an academic health center. Selecting attributes of business teams that foster the goals of a multidisciplinary translational research team results in incorporation of their advantages while avoiding most of the disadvantages in the business model

Business Team Types	Attributes Desirable to Incorporate in MTTs
Traditional Task/Project	•  Formally assigned roles and leadership
	•  Formal goals and scientific strategies, as well as objective evaluation criteria from scientific task/project
New Product Design	• Focus on innovation
	• Focus on speed of discovery and application
Cross‐ Functional	•  Focus on creativity possible through managing inherent disciplinary differences
	•  Use of multidisciplinary and divergent scientific paradigms to frame and execute scientific questions and study design
Virtual	•  Use of technological mediation to generate ideas, visualize data and phenomena, manage team processes
	•  Geographic, institutional, and disciplinary differences in time and space minimized through technology
Self‐Managed	•  Egalitarian governance and transformational leadership present
	•  Use of overarching goals (i.e., scientific/health need) and focal issues, organizing principles, and focus on commitment