Trust matters in health care. It makes patients feel less vulnerable, clinicians feel more effective, and reduces the imbalances of information by improving the flow of information. Trust is so fundamental to the patient-physician relationship that it is easy to assume it exists. But because of changes in health care and society at large, trust is increasingly understood to be at risk and in need of attention. Trust is at risk because the US health care system has evolved in ways that (whether intentional or not) are de-prioritizing relationships. Today, trust must be based on more than patient-physician relationships because much of the state-of-the-science care requires groups of clinicians to work in teams, and patients must trust the overall team as well as its individual members. Cultivating the trust of patients in the teams delivering their care would be simpler if those teams were well established, but many teams do not function well.

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