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Ananth Ravi, MOLLI Surgical - Magnetic-Based Tumor Localization System | LSI USA '24

MOLLI Surgical started in the OR after recognizing that surgeons were using dated technologies to treat cancer patients.
Speakers
Ananth Ravi
Ananth Ravi
MOLLI Surgical

Ananth Ravi  0:04  
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Ananth    Ravi. I'm the CEO and co founder of MOLLI surgical. We're a medical device company whose focus is on making precision surgery simpler. And I'm really honored to be up here again this year to share our progress to our mission and vision. For those of you that are unacquainted with our story, let me allow allow me to tell you about how we began we began from single patient's voice. So I started off my career as a medical physicist leading one of the larger cancer programs in Toronto. And I was fortunate to meet Mrs. Smith name anonymized at a patient family advisory council meeting where she told us about her story with wire localized breast cancer. She comes in in the morning after fasting the day before for for surgery, and she has these two wires placed and she weighed six hours with them protruding out of her breast, she's in pain, and discomfort, and she ends up fainting. And so even as I tell the story, I'm like transported back to that room. And you can imagine, I mean, everybody in this room would probably be similarly compelled to do something about it. And that's how Malia was born. And unfortunately, the story is not unique. There are 2.3 million patients each year that are diagnosed with breast cancer, yearly 70% of them are eligible for breast conserving surgery, and the vast majority of patients still get by our localization. So the potential for Good is immense. And it's an important problem to tackle. And our solution is founded on simplicity. So we implant a tiny permanent magnet. And then we use a wand and a tablet, much like a GPS system to really guide the surgeon down with precision to find that magnet and remove it with accuracy. But fundamentally, we are 100% reliable. So when the radiologist implants that magnet, the surgeon will be able to find that that magnet with 100% reliability every single time when they need it most, which is absolutely critical. And the reason we have this confidence is based on our clinical history, we've seen the impact and had difficult conversations resulting from inexact design. And that's problematic. And so we wanted to avoid that. So we obsess over every single detail because the risk is in those details. So take for example, the marker or marker is the smallest marker on the market allowing you to mark these title submillimetre DCIS targets. It's also made a permanent magnet, so never deactivate, and you will always be able to find it, and it's coated in pure gold. So it's incredibly biocompatible the needle, we have spent a lot of time finessing the sharpness of that needle, so that when a radiologist insert it takes very little force, so you can mark the toughest and fibrotic lesions, but it requires very little effort. So the patient doesn't feels minimal pain. And I want in our tablet are built on ergonomic principles. So the ones designed for every surgeon with large hands are small and the tip is tapered. So you can make a small incision that leaves no trace behind for the patient, which is all everything we want. And the tablet is IV mountable. And so this reduces that physical like load on clinical staff. They're not hunched over or straining to look at the screen. And our interface reduces that cognitive load, we provide just the right of information at the right time reducing that load or even not the extent of eliminating those annoying beeps and buzzes in the AOR by having a concert pianist program the sound so that it's actually pleasing. And on top of that, we all know that the systemic load on our healthcare practitioners is immense. So how do we reduce that? So Molly, you're now able to implant our marker on a different day from surgery. So what this allows you to do is to decouple radiology from surgery. So radiologists now can optimize their schedule, and fit in more cases. And then surgeons can operate first thing in the morning. And because the technology is so reliable, we're recognizing they're shortening their procedures, and fitting more in so we're seeing up to 40% for both of these departments in overall appreciated capacity, which is incredibly impactful, and not to mention the overall strain on these individuals. And our pace of advancement continues. So last year, this was just a rumor we talked about it of Mali to and we're proud to say we launched that this year to a tremendous reception in the market. And we were introduced something called New directional 3d guidance. So on the screen, you can see our one moving, and the white dot corresponds to a position where the center of the Bullseye is where the marker is so really guides the surgeon to exactly where the lesion is. And when they find it, and point right at it, it turns green. So it's really like a reassuring pat on the back that they found their target. Adding to that confidence and ease of use. What we didn't anticipate last year when I was here was introducing something called remarkable. So as we've gone into the market, we noticed that radiologists have a concern with these wirefree localization devices, because if it's placed sub optimally, now the surgeon has to go in for an additional surgical procedure to remove that sub optimally placed marker with remarkable, we use a percutaneous needle go in targeted with a highly magnetic operator that able to attract the market remove it. So this allows us to have confidence that when the patient leaves, radiology, the lesion is going to mark precisely and accurately. So last year, we were here and we were proud of treating over and impacting the lives of over 5000 patients. And this year, again, we've been able to more than triple that with 17,000 over 170 institutions just across North America. And we keep going. And it's really an exciting journey. We received some accolades from external partners and peers, it was really amazing to get named times best inventions for 2022. And most recently, we won the Edison award and good design for just our Molly to device which has been incredibly motivating for our team. Speaking of our team, were led by an exceptional group by myself, of course, because Holly said founders are bad, have exceptional leaders that are proven in their individual disciplines. And we benefit from their guidance day in and day out. But we're also supported by the true differentiator. In Mali, which is our people and our companies roughly split into we have an innovation arm and a commercialization arm, the commercialization arm is out there collecting feedback and how we can do better. And the innovation arm makes it a reality. So that allows us to really changed the global landscape of cancer. And because of this team, it's allowed us to dream bigger, so our mission has grown. We no longer are solely focused on breast or we're looking at the total global landscape of cancer. Our technologies indicated for soft tissues. And we believe the problem of localization is not just a breast cancer problem, you now have incredible resolution and are able to interrogate function in radiology like you've never been able to before. And in surgery, you have sub micron precision in movements, but you still rely on touching sight. So Molly can be that bridge, and allowing us to influence the lives of over 18 million patients diagnosed with cancer every year, and improving the quality of life. And a commitment from our company is that not only do we keep pace with these clinical needs, but our goal is to anticipate where the field is headed years from now. And we've manifested that since 2021. We have released at least one clinically new significant product year over year, and this year is going to be no different and 2024. We plan to extend our platform to incorporate minimally invasive surgery and explore what we can do in that realm. Thank you for your time. And if any part of our story is then compelling, please reach out to Diana Paul or myself and we'd love to tell you more. Thank you

 

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