Exploring Best Practices and the Catalog

What Are Best Practices?

Best Practices in Theator represent evidence-based surgical techniques and behaviors that are associated with improved patient outcomes. These practices are defined by clinical experts and measured automatically by Theator's AI as it analyzes your surgical recordings. Examples include achieving a critical view of safety during cholecystectomy or performing a specific dissection technique during a particular procedure.

Accessing the Best Practices Catalog

The Best Practices Catalog is part of the Surgical Excellence section of Theator. To access it:

Click Surgical Excellence in the left sidebar.
Select Best Practices.
Navigate to the Catalog tab, or go directly to /surgical-excellence/best-practices/catalog.

Browsing the Catalog

The catalog contains a library of surgical best practices organized by specialty and procedure type. For each practice, you will see:

Practice name and a brief description of what it entails
Specialty and procedure it applies to
Adoption rate — the percentage of cases where this practice was observed across your department
Clinical rationale — why this practice matters for patient outcomes

You can filter the catalog by specialty or procedure type to find practices relevant to your work.

How Practices Are Measured

Theator's AI models analyze surgical video recordings to detect whether specific practices were performed during a case. This analysis happens automatically after a case is processed. The platform then aggregates these observations into adoption metrics that you can view at the individual, department, and institutional level.

Because measurement is automated, it provides a consistent, objective view of practice adoption without requiring manual data entry.

Best Practices and SPEQs

Best Practices are closely related to SPEQs (Surgical Practice Evaluation and Quality metrics). SPEQs are curated sets of best practices grouped into quality initiatives that your department may be tracking. When you see a practice in the catalog, it may also be part of one or more active SPEQs.

To learn more about managing quality initiatives and SPEQs, see Manage Quality Initiatives.

Tips for Using the Catalog

Explore practices outside your primary specialty to discover techniques that may be relevant to your work.
Check your personal adoption rates in the Performance Profile to see how you are doing on specific practices.
Discuss practices with your team to align on which ones to prioritize for quality improvement.
Use the catalog as a learning resource to understand what each practice involves and why it matters.

The Best Practices Catalog is a valuable reference for anyone looking to understand and improve surgical quality at their institution.

What is an SPEQ? — Learn about Standardized Procedural Evaluation of Quality
Manage Quality Initiatives — Track quality improvement goals