Dr. Mary-Beth Brinson is a Proven Chief Executive Officer with a distinguished career in global healthcare and medical devices. She’s an expert in driving clinical strategy, organisational development, and operational excellence and has exceptional leadership and interpersonal skills to navigate complex environments and foster collaboration.
Skilled in implementing transformative change while minimising disruptions, optimising systems, and establishing robust processes, Dr. Mary-Beth Brinson leads Cyban with a clear vision for the health industry.
In this interview with Dr. Mary-Beth Brinson, we explore that vision and learn more about her approach and the value Cyban is designed to offer.
Q. Can you provide a concise overview of Cyban and its mission within the health industry?
Dr. Mary-Beth Brinson: Cyban is dedicated to improving outcomes in patients with or at risk of significant brain injury. Cyban is a medical device company that manufactures a novel, non-invasive cerebral blood flow biosensor. The system provides clinicians early information about disruption to their patient’s brain oxygen. The information from the system can help clinicians identify changes in condition earlier than simple physical examination, which allows intervention to improve the patient’s outcome.
Q. Could you elaborate on how this represents a significant advancement in brain oxygen monitoring?
Dr. Brinson: Cyban’s patented biosensor and waveforms allow early detection of patient deterioration and provides clinicians with assurance that the signals that they are acting upon are derived from cerebral blood flow. The patented waveform gives additional information to clinicians about brain blood flow, pressure and oxygenation.
Q. Could you describe the advantages of early intervention?
Dr. Brinson: In medicine, it is generally acknowledged that earlier diagnosis leads to better outcomes for patients and savings in the healthcare system. This is true for patients with, or at risk of, significant brain injury. Brain cells die in less than 2 minutes. If intervention is to be effective, deterioration of patient condition needs to be detected immediately. Failure to identify brain blood flow issues early can lead to many life changing issues including permanent cognitive issues, paralysis and death. Therefore, the earlier a clinician can detect a change, the better the chance to positively affect the outcome.
Q. You have an impressive background, transitioning from Cochlear to Tali Health and now Cyban. Could you share some key milestones and experiences that have shaped your journey to becoming the CEO of Cyban?
Dr. Brinson: My thinking in business has always been shaped and informed by my clinician beginnings. As a clinician, I could help people one person at a time. Leadership roles in medtech companies allow me to help a large number of people at one time. That realisation for me began when I worked for Cochlear in China, which was my first commercial role. I was able to see how patients’ outcomes depend on the medical device companies innovating and constantly improving their devices. Building great products is only the beginning in metech. You also have to ensure that there is proper training and support for the clinicians, patients and families. Additionally by working across several functions in my years at medtech companies, I learned the importance of each individual function and how it contributes to the success of the whole company. I have learned through my experiences how to move and motivate teams in one direction toward one goal, which is to improve patients’ and their families lives.
Q. As the CEO of Cyban, what strategies have you put in place that have greatly contributed to the company’s success in the health sector?
Dr. Brinson: Cyban has achieved so much in its 4 short years! It is quite impressive what has been accomplished to date. As we move into this early commercialisation phase, I am focussing the team on how to build early experiences with a newly approved, novel product in the field and build momentum and demand from those early uses. We have also created an internal structure that will support the new commercial arm of the business, including building out the team in the United States which is our first commercial market. There are so many opportunities with Cyban’s innovative device! We are working to focus our considerable talents in one direction- commercial adoption in the USA.
Q. Can you tell us briefly about Cyban’s current clinical trials?
Dr. Brinson: Cyban is dedicated to providing the clinical evidence to support use of this novel product. We have been doing research for many years and will continue for many, many years. Aside from the trial required by the FDA for approval, we have several current trials running. This includes a large exploratory study where we are learning about new potential applications of the product, a study using our sensors with stroke patients and a study examining how our sensor works on critically brain injured patients in the neuro ICU. These studies are running in different countries.
Q. What are the future plans for Cyban?
Dr. Brinson: The near future is about building adoption in the USA. In the coming months, post-FDA approval, we will be entering into a First Use program in selected hospitals in the US. We will collect information about workflows and how the product is used and adopted. We also have big plans around our next product and indication, which will have to remain a bit of a secret for a while longer!
Q. How do you manage your responsibilities as both a clinician and a corporate leader, and how does this dual focus improve your effectiveness in leading Cyban?
Dr. Brinson: While I no longer work as a clinician, my dedication to improving patient’s lives drives my belief system about what a medical device company should be. At its heart, it must care about improving lives. We have a great potential at Cyban to change the standard of care in monitoring brain injured patients. That mission alone makes it easy for all of us at Cyban to work hard every day to make this a reality.
Q. What motivates you personally in your work at the intersection of medicine and corporate leadership?
Dr. Brinson: Are there specific goals or principles that drive your commitment to excellence in these areas? As I mentioned previously, I carry much of my clinical oaths over into my corporate mentality. Medical devices make such a difference in people’s lives and therefore the companies have a deep responsibility to be ethical, evidence based and to continuously improve their products to ensure they solve medical gaps in care. The right to be a successful company is earned by staying focussed on improving patient outcomes. If you do those things right, you create an atmosphere that attracts the best and brightest people to the company. The combination of developing the best product, led by the best people makes working the steps for commercial success very rewarding!
To stay up to date with Dr. Mary-Beth Brinson and Cyban, visit the website here or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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