Surgical Methods and Performance research examines how surgical techniques are applied in practice — their frequency, quality, and efficiency — and explores relationships between what happens during surgery and patient outcomes afterward.
This is the most common type of clinical research conducted with Theator, and the platform is uniquely designed to support it.
What This Research Looks Like
Typical studies in this category analyze:
- Adoption of best practices — How frequently are recommended surgical techniques actually used across cases, surgeons, or departments?
- Operative efficiency — How much time is spent on specific surgical steps, and where are the opportunities for improvement?
- Intraoperative-to-outcome correlations — How do specific intraoperative events, techniques, or metrics relate to postoperative outcomes?
These studies are typically retrospective, using video and data that Theator has already captured and structured automatically.
Why Theator Is Ideal for This Research
- Always-on capture eliminates selection bias — every case is recorded, not just the ones someone remembered to capture.
- Automated AI annotation structures each video into steps, events, and milestones — reducing the time needed to review and categorize cases from hours to minutes.
- Customizable data export lets you pull aggregated intraoperative data alongside patient and outcomes information for statistical analysis.
- Analytics dashboards reveal trends at the individual, department, and organization level — often surfacing research topics before you even go looking.
- Representative sample sizes — because capture is automatic and continuous, studies naturally include large, unbiased cohorts.
Examples of Published Research
| Study | Authors & Institution | Publication | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surgical Intelligence Can Lead to Higher Adoption of Best Practices in Minimally Invasive Surgery | Fried et al.; Tel Aviv Medical Center | Annals of Surgery, 2024 | DOI |
| Routine Automated Assessment Using Surgical Intelligence Reveals Substantial Time Spent Outside the Patient's Body in Minimally Invasive Gynecological Surgeries | Levin et al.; Tel Aviv Medical Center | Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology, 2024 | DOI |
| Automated Operative Reports for Robotic Radical Prostatectomy Using an Artificial Intelligence Platform | Khanna et al.; Mayo Clinic Rochester | Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 2025 | DOI |
Typical Study Design
| Element | Typical Approach |
|---|---|
| Design | Retrospective video analysis |
| Data source | Automatically captured and annotated surgical videos |
| Sample size | 50–500+ cases (large samples enabled by automated capture) |
| Data extraction | Theator's Data Export tool — customizable fields including steps, events, metrics, and outcomes |
| Analysis | Statistical comparison of intraoperative variables across cohorts or correlation with outcomes |
Get Started
Interested in conducting a Surgical Methods and Performance study using Theator? Our clinical and support teams can help you define your research question, identify the right cohort, and structure your data export.
Reach out to your Customer Success Manager or contact us at support@theator.io.
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