MOLLI®, a made-in-Canada, wire-free and radiation-free technology for localizing lesions for breast surgery, is now more widely available to all hospitals across Canada.
MOLLI Surgical and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre have successfully commercialized the Health Canada-approved and FDA-cleared MOLLI. Now, thanks to the support of the CAN Health Network, which accelerates the adoption of Canadian health care solutions, hospitals across Canada will find it easier to adopt MOLLI for use in their communities.
“The collaboration among MOLLI Surgical, Sunnybrook, and the CAN Health Network has been outstanding,” said Ananth Ravi, Chief Science and Clinical Officer and co-founder at MOLLI Surgical. “The teams were motivated, organized, and collaborative to ensure a highly productive commercialization project. Initiatives such as these are tremendous accelerators to help scale our made-in-Canada solution to elevate the standard of care in breast surgery for Canadians.”
One of the goals at MOLLI Surgical is to improve precision surgery by making it simpler for the patient, simpler for the radiologist who helps to locate the tumour, and simpler for the surgeon who has to remove the tumour.
MOLLI is a medical device that implants a tiny tissue marker — about the size of a sesame seed — to mark where the tumour is in the breast for the surgeon. These tumours are small — often the size of a pearl. The MOLLI Wand® works by detecting the MOLLI Marker® and visualizing its location with a simple distance reading on a tablet, helping surgeons locate lesions more efficiently with improved accuracy. The marker is implanted by a radiologist within 30 days prior to the surgery and creates scheduling flexibility for the patient and hospital, which has become of paramount importance in an unpredictable pandemic environment.
The simplicity of MOLLI means it can be adopted almost anywhere, increasing access to care for Canadians, no matter where they live.
“We are thrilled that the CAN Health-supported commercialization project met our pre-established criteria for bringing this evidence-based technology to the benefit of hundreds of patients a year,” said Michael Young, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. “Patient feedback on their experience as well as care team feedback on the ease of use and clinical accuracy were overwhelmingly positive, and the technology was easily affordable within our Quality Based Procedure (QBP) procedural funding.”
“MOLLI has proven that it can drastically improve both the patient and provider experience, workflow efficiency —including surgery backlogs, system integration, and patient access — and clinical accuracy,” said Dr. Dante Morra, Chair, CAN Health Network. “The CAN Health Network is proud to be leveraging MOLLI Surgical’s ingenuity as we support the growth of this made-in-Canada solution.”
MOLLI now has a national presence, from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, and is moving to expand its usage into non-breast applications such as colorectal cancer cases.
“I’m proud of our made-in-Canada solution to improve the breast cancer treatment experience for patients and health care providers; the results we saw in the CAN Health project validated all of the incredible work MOLLI Surgical has completed,” said Fazila Seker, Ph.D., President and CEO of MOLLI Surgical Inc. “Together, with our partners, we can elevate the standard of care for breast-conserving surgery in Canada — and beyond to other surgeries — as we help more people nationwide move towards wire-free and radiation-free localization.”
ABOUT MOLLI SURGICAL:
MOLLI Surgical started in the operating room, where surgeons were using dated tools to treat cancer patients — and we knew we could do better. Our surgical wand is precise, easy-to-use and built with the realities of the operating room in mind. More importantly, it is built with patients in mind. Our Mtechnology replaces procedures to mark tumours with one that is not only kinder — but more accurate, efficient and cost-effective. MOLLI Surgical is proud to build the advanced equipment that patients prefer to have and that physicians prefer to use. For more information, visit mollisurgical.com.
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ABOUT CAN HEALTH NETWORK:
The CAN Health Network is a Canada-first approach to technology adoption. It helps break down barriers to scaling in the health-care system and provides an environment for companies to scale to their full potential. Currently operating in Ontario, Western and Atlantic Canada, the CAN Health Network was recently awarded $30 million by the Government of Canada as part of Budget 2022 to expand into Quebec, the Territories and with Indigenous Communities. To learn more about the CAN Health Network, visit www.canhealthnetwork.ca.
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ABOUT SUNNYBROOK HEALTH SCIENCES CENTRE:
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is inventing the future of health care for the 1.3 million patients the hospital cares for each year through the dedication of its more than 10,000 staff and volunteers. An internationally recognized leader in research and education and a full affiliation with the University of Toronto distinguishes Sunnybrook as one of Canada’s premier academic health sciences centres. Sunnybrook specializes in caring for high-risk pregnancies, critically ill newborns and adults, offering specialized rehabilitation, and treating and preventing cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological and psychiatric disorders, orthopaedic and arthritic conditions and traumatic injuries. The hospital also has a unique and national leading program for the care of Canada’s war veterans. To learn more about Sunnybrook, visit https://sunnybrook.ca.
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