How can I share cases automatically with my department? – Theator

The easiest way to share cases on an ongoing basis with a group — for example a team of attendings and the residents or fellows who work with them — is to put everyone in the same Department. Once users share a department, they can automatically see and collaborate on each other's cases, with no need to share each case one by one.

A department doesn't have to mirror your hospital's official org chart. You can create one for any group that makes sense — a sub-specialty team, a coaching cohort, or a few attendings and their trainees.

Which sharing method should I use?

There are two ways to share cases with colleagues in your organization. Pick based on how often you share, and with whom:

Method	Best for	How cases are added	Who can view
Department (recommended)	Routine, ongoing sharing within a group	Automatically — every member's cases are visible to the group	All members of the department
Collection	Curating a specific set of cases for review or teaching	Manually — you add each case you want to include	The colleagues you share the collection with

Tip: Departments are the lowest-maintenance option. Once your group is set up, new cases appear for everyone automatically — there's nothing to add or re-share.

To share a single case with someone outside your organization, use a public link instead — see How can I share a case outside of my organization?.

What members of a department can do

When users belong to the same department, they can:

See each other's cases in their case list and search.
Comment and tag one another on specific moments in a case to give feedback or ask a question.
Collaborate on review and teaching without anyone having to share cases individually.

How much of the department's cases each member sees is governed by your organization's viewing policy. See Theator permissions overview for the available options.

How to set up a department

There are two ways to get a department created:

Option 1 — Your admin sets it up

An account Admin can create and manage departments directly:

Navigate to the Organization page (https://app.theator.io/organization).
Go to the Departments section.
Click Add Department and enter a name.
Open the department and assign the users who should belong to it.

For full details, see Managing Your Organization.

The Departments tab on the Organization page, with the "New department" button

Option 2 — Ask Theator to set it up

If you'd rather not manage it yourself, send your Theator contact the list of users you want grouped together, and we'll set the department up for you.

Keeping sensitive cases out of the shared view

Sharing routine cases with a department doesn't mean giving up control over individual ones. Any case can be marked private so it's visible only to its owner, participants, and admins — even within a shared department. Marking a case private is an admin action; see How can I make a case private?.

How can I share my collection with other users? — Share a hand-picked set of cases
How to Use Comments and Tag Teammates — Give feedback at a specific moment in a case
Managing Your Organization — Create and manage departments
Theator permissions overview — How viewing access works