Innovating From Wire to Wire-Free Localization in Breast Cancer

Ananth Ravi is an experienced medical physicist and the President and CEO of MOLLI Surgical, a company dedicated to patient-centered care and innovative technology in the healthcare industry. With a demonstrated history of working in the hospital and healthcare sector, Ananth is passionate about improving the treatment experience through medical devices. He holds a position as an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and is actively involved in research and teaching. Ananth’s expertise and leadership have contributed to the success of MOLLI Surgical, making him a notable figure in the field of medical innovation.

  1. Can you tell our audience about yourself?

My name is Ananth Ravi and I am the President, CEO and Co-founder of MOLLI Surgical.  MOLLI® is an award-winning, wire-free soft tissue localization technology that marks the location of a lesion precisely for removal during surgery.

Prior to co-founding our company, I was a certified medical physicist at Sunnybrook’s Odette Cancer Centre and Clinical Operations Lead, Brachytherapy. I am proud to be the first medical physicist to win the Human Touch Award, which recognizes individuals who demonstrate an exemplary commitment to improving the quality of care for cancer patients within Ontario. 


I believe strongly in patient-centered and empathetic care. That means — ironically and notwithstanding the desire to “do no harm” — knowing that as healthcare providers we will often be putting a patient through a lot of pain and discomfort as we work to help them. I realized that finding a cure for disease isn’t enough. The best compliment I ever received was from a patient undergoing brachytherapy for cervical cancer, who asked at the end of her procedure, “Is the treatment complete? I don’t remember any of it.” The experience of care is just as important as the medical therapy being provided. And in fact, medical technology is the bridge between where medicine is, and where it could be. Technology can help spare healthy tissue, alleviate uncertainty, introduce greater precision, and improve outcomes medically, and mentally. The potential for technology and its human impact are the most exciting things for me right now, and that’s what drives me and inspires me every day.

  1. Can you tell our audience about MOLLI Surgical?

MOLLI Surgical is based in Toronto, Ontario and was founded in 2018. In 2021, MOLLI® received FDA clearance and was approved as the first Canadian-made wire-free localization technology for breast cancer surgery by Health Canada. We started with one patient’s voice — a patient who asked if there was a way to make her breast cancer journey better. Her voice led to the creation of our flagship wire and radiation-free technologies — MOLLI 2® and MOLLI re.markable™: 

MOLLI 2® 

  • MOLLI 2® makes it easier than ever for surgeons to locate a lesion during surgery, more precisely remove it, and achieve better cosmetic results for their patients.
  • MOLLI 2 includes a new wand and visual feature over our first MOLLI system that gives surgeons true directional feedback when locating lesions, boosting their confidence and improving patient outcomes (like an “AirTag” for surgeons).

re.markable™ 

  • re.markable™ is a game-changer for radiologists — uniquely designed to safely and easily remove markers (in case placement is off), which hasn’t been a possibility until now.
  • It’s a minimally invasive, first-of-its-kind update to the MOLLI device.
  • re.markable gives radiologists the ability to remove and reposition the MOLLI Marker® to ensure precise placement and surgical removal of the lesion.

Our innovations are intended to replace outdated procedures to mark lesions for surgical removal with greater precision, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. We obsess over every detail of our design process to ensure surgeons and radiologists have the best possible tools in their hands to support an improved patient experience.

MOLLI has been recognized by TIME as one of 2022’s “Best Inventions” in the Medical Care category and named to Fast Company’s list of the “Next Big Things in Tech,” recognizing technology breakthroughs across industries that promise to transform the future. We are proud to build the advanced solutions that patients and physicians prefer.

Indirectly, hospital systems and administrators benefit from MOLLI as well. There are different options for scheduling the timing of a patient’s procedure. Patients can go home comfortably between localization and their surgery, and that allows schedulers to create more efficiency in clinical workflows. MOLLI is more than a product: it represents a systematic approach that builds efficiency and effectiveness for patients, medical teams, and treatment centers involved in the breast cancer journey, and beyond.

As part of our commitment to innovation, we plan to launch new products that improve the patient experience every 12-18 months. Any soft tissue lesion that needs to be located in the body can benefit from the simplicity of MOLLI. We have already identified additional clinical areas where MOLLI can elevate care, such as melanoma and thoracic procedures, and doctors have already started to use MOLLI in colorectal cancer surgeries.

  1. What problem is MOLLI Surgical solving & how? 

Globally, approximately two million patients are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. 70% of them are eligible for breast surgery and the vast majority of these women receive wire-based localization procedures. Wire localization has not changed over the past 50 years and suffers from suboptimal patient experience and inefficient hospital workflow. Attempts to improve breast cancer surgery have been marred with high risk components (radioactive material) and unreliable system performance.

MOLLI Surgical is focused on breast cancer surgery made simpler. For patients. For radiologists. For surgeons. MOLLI 2® is a wire-free, radiation-free technology for breast cancer localization and surgery. Our FDA-cleared and Health Canada approved MOLLI® system features the smallest marker on the market with unmatched reliability. It’s designed to help surgeons remove lesions more efficiently with increased patient comfort. It’s easy-to-use and designed to work with standard clinical workflows.

MOLLI enables Health Care professionals: 

  • To choose the better accuracy of wire-free localization — minus the radiation of other methods.
  • The freedom to choose the surgical plan that facilitates optimal cosmetic outcomes — independent of radiology.
  • To secure easier booking for physicians and patients while improving OR efficiency. 
  • Spare patients the discomfort of all-day fasting, painful protruding wires, and accompanying anxiety.

MOLLI 2 works as a system of two parts: The MOLLI Wand® detects the MOLLI Marker® and visualizes its location on a tablet, helping surgeons locate lesions more efficiently with improved accuracy. The marker is implanted by a radiologist up to 30 days before surgery. 

With MOLLI, surgery departments can perform 41% more breast surgeries, radiology departments can see 34% more patients, and the procedures are simpler and less painful for patients.

We believe healthcare needs to get simpler to get better. To achieve this, we focus on learning about the patient experience and developing new medical devices and services that help care teams be more efficient and effective. We honor the care teams who have dedicated their lives to helping others. MOLLI has been implemented across the US and Canada, from large academic institutions to small community hospitals, benefitting more than 7,000 patients so far. 

  1. What have been the biggest achievements of MOLLI Surgical? 

MOLLI® has been recognized by TIME as one of 2022’s “Best Inventions” in the Medical Care category and named to Fast Company’s list of the “Next Big Things in Tech,” recognizing technology breakthroughs across industries that promise to transform the future. We are proud to build the advanced solutions that patients and physicians prefer. 

  1. What have been the biggest challenges for MOLLI Surgical & how did you overcome them?

One of the challenges is that there are two million people diagnosed with breast cancer throughout the world and the vast majority of these patients are receiving wire localization. At MOLLI Surgical, we have created technology that is accessible by all…how do we get it in their hands and elevate their care as fast as possible? That is a challenge that we are tasked with and we take it very seriously.

To tackle this challenge, we are focusing on expanding our skilled clinical and commercial teams. We aim to utilize their expertise to not just promote our products, but also train and develop programs in various institutions. This approach will ensure that they become valuable assets during surgical procedures.

Our audience can get the word out. Ask for MOLLI® and we will handle the rest.

  1. What are you most excited about in healthcare at present? How do you anticipate healthcare will change in the next 5 years?

The healthcare industry has become highly bureaucratic and focused on processes, placing a significant burden on care teams. This may even detract from their ability to provide compassionate care to patients. One of the technologies that I think is going to shake all that up is artificial intelligence and systems that reduce the cognitive burden on physicians and caregivers.

The level of care remains consistent, but with less mental strain, allowing healthcare professionals to concentrate on being more compassionate and attentive to patients and their loved ones. That is exactly what MOLLI® is trying to do as well. We’re trying to build a technology that makes the surgical experience less burdensome and they can focus on providing a better quality surgery with perhaps even better oncologic and cosmetic outcomes. MOLLI is an extension of their skills and they do not have to spend effort learning and using it. MOLLI Surgical’s solution aims to make it really simple and intuitive.In terms of how MOLLI is being used, we’re able to find lesions; we’re able to mark the smallest of DCIS and cancers with these tiny 3.2 mm markers and provide a better patient experience. From a surgical perspective, it gives you so much more confidence with MOLLI 2®, it’s an evolution of the experience, and we’re constantly refining that so it gets better with time. The idea there is the surgeon doesn’t have to think about the technology. They can focus on the patient. That’s the main premise, we make the technology so damn reliable and easy to use that it’s almost in the background. It’s an extension of the expertise versus something that they have to understand how to use and figure out. And that’s the goal as we continue to refine and evolve MOLLI.

  1. What are your favorite educational resources, and how have they influenced you?

By far, my favorite educational resources are books, which I find to be a fantastic resource. I tend to read a lot of guidance books that normally as an academic and a scientist I wouldn’t.

To say what is my favorite book of all time is impossible. Right now I am reading Dare to Lead, a very compelling book by Brené Brown. Recently, I read Man’s Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl. Truly impactful works of literature and a trove of what it means to be human.

The nice thing about books that I read is their variety. I try to read from multiple genres that aren’t in my specialty. The other area in which I look to keep in touch with is academic literature.

As a member of the medical physicist community, I continue to read journals that I subscribe to. The academic research in this field creates a lot of fascinating applied physics and sciences, and the pace of creativity is staggering. These are the main areas that interest me for educational purposes.

The one podcast I do listen to is “How I Built This” by Guy Raz. I find it fantastic. Another fantastic podcast I subscribe to is Brené Brown’s “Dare to Lead.”

To stay up to date, I think by far, Linkedin and Twitter are useful. I use it sparingly though and primarily to review anything new that I have missed as social media doom scrolling can be a terrible waste of time.

I believe that the key element is to maintain a sense of curiosity. Trying to discover new things and new ways of thinking is something I have always found fascinating and something I will do forever. I think from day to day, the medium on which you consume information changes, but as long as it’s teaching you something new and helping to broaden your understanding of the world, I think it’s all moving in the right direction.

  1. Do you have any other key messages for the audience?

I’d like to close off with our mission statement: 

We exist to save and improve lives with cutting-edge technology.

Our team is dedicated to working tirelessly to develop and implement innovative solutions that can make a real difference. We are committed to excellence, integrity, and collaboration, and we believe that by working together, we can achieve great things.

Thank you for your interest in our mission and for your support as we work to create a better future for all.

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