A new breast surgery device developed by a Minnesota-based company that was founded by UW–Madison faculty members has hit the market and will be used by 15 hospital systems by month’s end, according to an article in the Wisconsin State Journal.
The breast surgery marker uses wireless technology, instead of a protruding wire, to help surgeons locate and remove breast tumors in procedures known as lumpectomies. It has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and is in use at UW Health and SSM Health Dean Medical Group.
It was developed by Elucent Medical in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, which was founded by Dr. Lee Wilke, director of the UW Health Breast Center; Dr. Fred Lee Jr., a UW professor of radiology; Daniel van der Weide, a UW professor of engineering; and CEO Laura King, who once led NeuWave Medical, a Madison-based microwave ablation startup that was sold to Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon division.
With the new device, surgeons performing biopsies will no longer have to leave behind a small metal clip to mark the location of a suspicious lesion that might have to be removed.
