Leadership Team

Introduction

A diagnosis of myasthenia gravis can be a protracted ordeal for many patients. Muscle weakness is invisible: symptoms wax and wane or can mimic those of other conditions. Unless a physician has a high degree of suspicion, a diagnosis of myasthenia gravis might be missed.

Just as each person’s experience with myasthenia gravis is in some way unique, no one treatment fits all situations. Caring for patients requires time, judgment and experience by a physician with expertise in this disease.

Medical Advisory Board

Our Medical Advisory Board (MAB) focuses on helping myasthenia gravis patients experience timely diagnosis and effective medical care through training seminars for health professionals, physician-to-physician consults and patient education programs. Members advance the foundation’s working relationships with pharmaceutical and biotech companies by encouraging the development of new or improved therapies for myasthenia gravis.

Chairman: David P. Richman, MD, Department of Neurology, University of California, Davis

Secretary: Jeffrey Ralph, MD, University of California San Francisco

Members: 

Said Beydoun, MD, FAAN, University of Southern California

Luis A. Chui, MD, Professor, Department of Neurology, University of California, Irvine

Benjamin M. Frishberg, MD, The Neurology Center of Southern California

Namita A. Goyal, MD, UC Irvine MDA, ALS & Neuromuscular Center

Jonathan S. Katz, MD, California Pacific Medical Center

Richard A. Lewis, MD, Department of Neurology, Cedars Sinai 

Jonathan I. Macy, MD, Cedars Sinai Medical Towers

Shalini Mahajan, MD, Attune Health, Los Angeles Neuromuscular Center

Ricardo A. Maselli, MD, Department of Neurology, University of California, Davis

Robert G. Miller, MD, California Pacific Medical Center

Tahseen Mozaffar, MD, UC Irvine MDA, ALS & Neuromuscular Center

Jeffrey Rosenfeld PhD., MD, FAAN, The Center for Restorative Neurology, Loma Linda University School of Medicine

Gregory A. Sahagian, MD, North County Neurology Associates

Geoffrey L. Sheean, MBBS, FRACP, Scripps Clinic

Perry B. Shieh, MD, Department of Neurology, UCLA

Yuen Tat So, MD, PhD, Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford Neuroscience Health Center

Annabel Wang, MD, Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center

Members

All MAB members must have expertise in scientific study or the clinical aspects of myasthenia gravis. They comprise a dedicated and talented group of physicians and scientists from California’s top universities, clinics and medical centers which include:

Physician Education

Our MAB promotes medical education programs to expand knowledge of MG among practicing physicians so they can recognize the disease and better understand ways to treat it.  Medical symposiums and physician conferences are scheduled on a biennial basis in central locations throughout California.

Physician-to-Physician

Consult Members of the MAB provide advice and counsel about MG directly to physicians and other health care providers requesting this service. The belief is that we are all partners in the effort to eradicate this disease.

Patient Education

The integrity of the doctor-patient relationship is based on strong communication between both parties. Informed patients are active participants in securing medical care and, with greater understanding, comply with their physicians’ important treatment directives.

Each year, MGFC sponsors spring and fall meetings which feature lectures by members of the Medical Advisory Board or other MG experts.  After formal presentations, there are ample opportunities for myasthenics to ask specific questions pertinent to their unique illness.