Full Name
Dr. Brian C. DeBusk
Job Title
President & CEO of DeRoyal
Speaker Bio
Brian C. DeBusk, Ph.D., MBA, serves as the President and CEO of DeRoyal Industries, one of the nation’s largest privately held medical equipment and device companies, specializing in the design, manufacture, and marketing of surgical supplies, orthopedic goods, patient protection items, and wound care products. DeRoyal sells into over 68 countries and has been in business for over 45 years with approximately 2,000 employees.
Dr. DeBusk also serves as the Vice Chairman of Lincoln Memorial University which has focused on meeting the educational needs of greater Appalachia since the Reconstruction Era of the Civil War. The university was originally founded as an undergraduate liberal arts institution, but has built its 4,500-student enrollment on a combination of undergraduate and professional programs. The DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine is the largest medical program in the state of Tennessee, and reportedly the tenth largest program in the country with 243 students per class. The school also educates 96 Physician Assistants per year, and the nursing program trains approximately 700 nurses per year and an additional 75 Advanced Practice Nurses, including Nurse Practitioners, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, and Advanced Practice Mental Health Nurses. Along with its rural Appalachian focus, the school also places a strong emphasis on Primary Care and Healthcare Provider Shortage Areas.
Dr. DeBusk is also engaged in healthcare public policy, including his 2016 appointment to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). The Commission serves as a Congressional Branch Agency with a statutory obligation to advise congress on the finance and delivery of the Medicare program. This Commission engages in a number of health policy areas, ranging from provider payment appropriateness and adequacy to delivery system reform to both Part B and Part D drug policy.
Dr. DeBusk began his science career nearly three decades ago at Vanderbilt University after being invited by the lead researcher of the Surface Physics Group to pursue work following his freshman year. In subsequent years, he also served as a research assistant in the Living State Physics group and the Neuroscience Program. After his junior year, he was admitted into graduate school in the field of neuroscience focused on the primary visual cortex. During this time, Dr. DeBusk worked in three key areas: Surgical Dissection and Anatomy, Electronic Processing and Capture of Cortical Discharges, and Digital Array Signal Processing. This is a particularly multi-disciplinary area of science since it requires a background in biology, engineering and theoretical mathematics. Dr. DeBusk’s work in cortical discharge sequence analysis led to a series of discoveries on how information is coded in the brain, particularly how the brain uses global inhibitory mechanisms for gain control and the role of gamma-aminobutyric acid in mediating the cross-inhibition of neurons. This work also led to him receiving his Ph.D. in engineering only three years after completion of his undergraduate degree. As such, Dr. DeBusk remains the youngest Ph.D. recipient in the history of Vanderbilt University. His research in the field of neuroscience produced six publications including several first-authorship papers including The Journal of Neurophysiology in 1997. Dr. DeBusk also attended the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, where he graduated with the number one academic rank in his class.
After graduation, Dr. DeBusk joined DeRoyal as their head of Research and Development. During this time, he pioneered the development of several medical products including hydrogel-coated neonatal temperature probes that are now commonly used in hospitals throughout the country. He subsequently served as COO and ultimately CEO of DeRoyal during which time the company launched products in temperature monitoring, patient protection, risk management, wound care, orthopedic softgoods and surgical accessories. He also led the development of a combined supply chain and information solution system offered through both Owens & Minor and McKesson. This system was awarded both the Product of the Year and the Field Sales Support of the Year by McKesson in 1999. Dr. DeBusk also holds eleven patents in the fields of health care and information technology.
Dr. DeBusk conducts ongoing work in the field of supply chain optimization through DeRoyal’s RFID-enabled Continuum platform, with applications in DMEPOS dispensing and billing, wound care, pharmacy management, and surgery. His work focuses on establishing a digital chain of custody for key supplies, with physical inventory management linked to patient clinical data and billing.
Dr. DeBusk has served as a professor at the University of Tennessee. As a faculty member in the Physician Executive MBA program, Dr. DeBusk taught both Information Technology and Strategy courses offered exclusively for physicians seeking high-quality leadership management, and business operation skills – receiving the University of Tennessee’s Teaching Excellence Award in 1998.
As an entrepreneur in the field of health information technology, Dr. DeBusk formed iPath, which pioneered the development of many features found in modern-day Operating Room (OR) Information Systems including Block Scheduling, Charge by Exception, In-room Clinical Documentation, Rules-based Charging, Tiered Preference Cards and structured Bills of Materials. Software provided by iPath allowed providers to seamlessly manage both the clinical and financial aspects of operating room care. Under Dr. DeBusk’s leadership, iPath had captured one out of every three new orders for operating room systems, was ranked number one in 15 of the 18 KLAS software evaluation categories and was generally accepted as the leader in OR systems segment. Having been purchased by General Electric (GE) in 2002, iPath remains in existence today and its products are offered by GE Healthcare under the brand name Centricity.
After the sale of iPath, Dr. DeBusk joined GE Healthcare serving in various senior management roles as a General Manager of Enterprise Resource Management; as Vice President and General Manager of Clinical Enterprise Solutions; and, as Director of Global Business Development. Dr. DeBusk worked for GE in capacities ranging from engineering, sales and marketing and acquisitions of new businesses.
Dr. DeBusk then led the turnaround of Inobis Healthcare, an information technology company that specialized in item catalog analysis for determining the functional equivalence of similar disposable medical devices. After a successful restructuring of the company’s information technology infrastructure and sales force, Inobis was sold to MedAssets of St. Louis, MO. This company remains in existence today and is offered as part of the Vizient Information technology portfolio.
As part of his role in healthcare public policy, Dr. DeBusk has placed particular emphasis on Hospital Wage Index reform, design and implementation of episodic payment models, unification of post-acute care payments, risk adjustment and socio-demographic stratification methodologies, improving the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, and reducing prescription drug costs.
Dr. DeBusk also serves as the Vice Chairman of Lincoln Memorial University which has focused on meeting the educational needs of greater Appalachia since the Reconstruction Era of the Civil War. The university was originally founded as an undergraduate liberal arts institution, but has built its 4,500-student enrollment on a combination of undergraduate and professional programs. The DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine is the largest medical program in the state of Tennessee, and reportedly the tenth largest program in the country with 243 students per class. The school also educates 96 Physician Assistants per year, and the nursing program trains approximately 700 nurses per year and an additional 75 Advanced Practice Nurses, including Nurse Practitioners, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, and Advanced Practice Mental Health Nurses. Along with its rural Appalachian focus, the school also places a strong emphasis on Primary Care and Healthcare Provider Shortage Areas.
Dr. DeBusk is also engaged in healthcare public policy, including his 2016 appointment to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). The Commission serves as a Congressional Branch Agency with a statutory obligation to advise congress on the finance and delivery of the Medicare program. This Commission engages in a number of health policy areas, ranging from provider payment appropriateness and adequacy to delivery system reform to both Part B and Part D drug policy.
Dr. DeBusk began his science career nearly three decades ago at Vanderbilt University after being invited by the lead researcher of the Surface Physics Group to pursue work following his freshman year. In subsequent years, he also served as a research assistant in the Living State Physics group and the Neuroscience Program. After his junior year, he was admitted into graduate school in the field of neuroscience focused on the primary visual cortex. During this time, Dr. DeBusk worked in three key areas: Surgical Dissection and Anatomy, Electronic Processing and Capture of Cortical Discharges, and Digital Array Signal Processing. This is a particularly multi-disciplinary area of science since it requires a background in biology, engineering and theoretical mathematics. Dr. DeBusk’s work in cortical discharge sequence analysis led to a series of discoveries on how information is coded in the brain, particularly how the brain uses global inhibitory mechanisms for gain control and the role of gamma-aminobutyric acid in mediating the cross-inhibition of neurons. This work also led to him receiving his Ph.D. in engineering only three years after completion of his undergraduate degree. As such, Dr. DeBusk remains the youngest Ph.D. recipient in the history of Vanderbilt University. His research in the field of neuroscience produced six publications including several first-authorship papers including The Journal of Neurophysiology in 1997. Dr. DeBusk also attended the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, where he graduated with the number one academic rank in his class.
After graduation, Dr. DeBusk joined DeRoyal as their head of Research and Development. During this time, he pioneered the development of several medical products including hydrogel-coated neonatal temperature probes that are now commonly used in hospitals throughout the country. He subsequently served as COO and ultimately CEO of DeRoyal during which time the company launched products in temperature monitoring, patient protection, risk management, wound care, orthopedic softgoods and surgical accessories. He also led the development of a combined supply chain and information solution system offered through both Owens & Minor and McKesson. This system was awarded both the Product of the Year and the Field Sales Support of the Year by McKesson in 1999. Dr. DeBusk also holds eleven patents in the fields of health care and information technology.
Dr. DeBusk conducts ongoing work in the field of supply chain optimization through DeRoyal’s RFID-enabled Continuum platform, with applications in DMEPOS dispensing and billing, wound care, pharmacy management, and surgery. His work focuses on establishing a digital chain of custody for key supplies, with physical inventory management linked to patient clinical data and billing.
Dr. DeBusk has served as a professor at the University of Tennessee. As a faculty member in the Physician Executive MBA program, Dr. DeBusk taught both Information Technology and Strategy courses offered exclusively for physicians seeking high-quality leadership management, and business operation skills – receiving the University of Tennessee’s Teaching Excellence Award in 1998.
As an entrepreneur in the field of health information technology, Dr. DeBusk formed iPath, which pioneered the development of many features found in modern-day Operating Room (OR) Information Systems including Block Scheduling, Charge by Exception, In-room Clinical Documentation, Rules-based Charging, Tiered Preference Cards and structured Bills of Materials. Software provided by iPath allowed providers to seamlessly manage both the clinical and financial aspects of operating room care. Under Dr. DeBusk’s leadership, iPath had captured one out of every three new orders for operating room systems, was ranked number one in 15 of the 18 KLAS software evaluation categories and was generally accepted as the leader in OR systems segment. Having been purchased by General Electric (GE) in 2002, iPath remains in existence today and its products are offered by GE Healthcare under the brand name Centricity.
After the sale of iPath, Dr. DeBusk joined GE Healthcare serving in various senior management roles as a General Manager of Enterprise Resource Management; as Vice President and General Manager of Clinical Enterprise Solutions; and, as Director of Global Business Development. Dr. DeBusk worked for GE in capacities ranging from engineering, sales and marketing and acquisitions of new businesses.
Dr. DeBusk then led the turnaround of Inobis Healthcare, an information technology company that specialized in item catalog analysis for determining the functional equivalence of similar disposable medical devices. After a successful restructuring of the company’s information technology infrastructure and sales force, Inobis was sold to MedAssets of St. Louis, MO. This company remains in existence today and is offered as part of the Vizient Information technology portfolio.
As part of his role in healthcare public policy, Dr. DeBusk has placed particular emphasis on Hospital Wage Index reform, design and implementation of episodic payment models, unification of post-acute care payments, risk adjustment and socio-demographic stratification methodologies, improving the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, and reducing prescription drug costs.
Speaking At
