From a clinical workflow perspective, same-day wire placement requires coordination between radiology and surgery departments and may lead to unnecessary wait times for patients and physicians if there are delays in either department. At Northwell, the need for radiology staff to travel from their offices to facilities where surgery is performed to place the wires the morning of surgery significantly reduced their productivity, as they had limited ability to perform other work while away from their offices.

Radioactive seed localization (RSL) is a wire-free alternative in which a radioactive pellet is implanted within the lesion. While this approach obviates a number of the challenges that occur with wire localization, it may be difficult to implement due to regulatory and administrative requirements related to use of radioactive material. Northwell had explored RSL but did not pursue it aggressively due to cumbersome tracking and handling processes that would have been especially difficult to implement across its entire network of sites.


Radar localization, another wire-free approach, utilizes a small reflector that can be placed in the lesion at any time during the diagnosis and treatment continuum. During the excision procedure, the surgeon uses a hand-held device to detect the location of the reflector and direct accurate tissue excision. Importantly, it is the only non-radioactive localization implant that has no restriction on how long it can remain in the breast, which gives clinicians maximum flexibility to use SCOUT throughout the care continuum. This includes reflector placement at the time of biopsy, prior to neoadjuvant chemotherapy or prior to surgery.

A comprehensive approach to evaluating new technology
As a wire-free, non-radioactive approach, Northwell believed that the SAVI SCOUT® Radar Localization System would provide multiple benefits to the organization and the patients it serves.

• Patients would have the flexibility to undergo the reflector replacement procedure at the time and location most convenient to them, offering enhanced convenience compared with wire localization. Additionally, radar localization eliminates the discomfort and stress that many women experience with a wire that protrudes from their breast, which increases patient satisfaction.

• The radiology department could gain workflow efficiencies by performing placement procedures in radiologists’ offices rather than at Northwell’s surgical facilities. Such efficiencies would support an increase in the volume of patients that radiologists are able to see each day, making care accessible in a timelier manner. Additionally, the ease of the reflector placement procedure would facilitate training of radiology staff and enable rapid adoption of the technology throughout the network. This was a key institutional goal as Northwell sought to standardize care across its facilities.

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