Red line the red line: Optimizing emergency medicine physicians and surgeons collaborative roles on trauma teams

It has long been the standard for surgical and EM teams to both be present upon patient arrival and work together for the sickest trauma patients, yielding improved outcomes. It is important to dismantle divisive perceptions, confront system constraints, and promote new strategies that optimize the engagement of trauma team members. The focus should be on the patient, whose injury care starts with prevention and extends seamlessly through prehospital, hospital and rehabilitation.The authors address several myths that impact collaborative teamwork among emergency medicine physician and surgeons.Leaders, especially at GME sites, need to foster collaborative relationships, rather than adversarial. The red line mentality is a divisive construct that should be dismantled.