Patient Services

Dr. Sohail Masood, Founder of Dysimmune Diseases Foundation (DDF), has been a patient advocate for more than 30 years. In the late nineteen eighties, Dr. Masood worked with neurologists who diagnosed and treated neuromuscular diseases. At the time, there were an extremely limited number of drugs available to treat these diseases. Dr. Masood worked closely with neurologists who pioneered intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) treatment for neuromuscular disease. These efforts helped generate the development of safer and more effective IVIG formulations than previously available to patients.

When IVIG was not initially an approved treatment for neuromuscular diseases, Dr. Masood advocated diligently on behalf of neuromuscular and dermatological patients to receive IVIG treatments. Over the last 30 years, Dr. Masood has been instrumental in changing the medical guidelines and insurance policies of Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Medicare, Medicaid, and others to provide appropriate insurance coverage for IVIG-treatable diseases. Specifically, he advocated to have CIDP, Myasthenia Gravis, and Pemphigus Vulgaris approved for coverage by Medicare, Medicaid and various commercial insurance companies.

As the owner of Crescent Healthcare, Inc. in the 1990s, when there was a severe shortage of IVIG, Dr. Masood donated IVIG to the National Institute of Health (NIH) so that trials for Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS) could be completed. This trial remains the only placebo-controlled, double-blind study that demonstrates treatment efficacy for SPS.

DDF works to further the passion of its founder, Dr. Sohail Masood, to support patients with dysimmune diseases through advocacy and research funding. DDF continues to advocate for patients’ access to affordable and effective treatments through governmental and commercial channels. DDF is establishing a fund to help patients with financial hardship afford the treatments they are prescribed. At DDF, we continue to embrace innovative ways to make a difference for patients with dysimmune disease. If you have an idea that would help DDF make meaningful changes in patients’ lives please let us know.