About Douglas Jones, MD, FAAAAI, FACAAI
Douglas Jones, MD is known globally as an innovator and “finding a way for those have not previously had one” by taking an integrative approach to patients. He is the founder and CEO of Global Allergy Immune Network. He is also the founder and medical director of Immunity Group Australia. Additionally, he cofounded and is president of two nonprofit organizations, Food Allergy Support Team, that helps allergists learn and implement best practices for food allergy diagnostics and treatment, and Allergy Microbiome Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the science of integrated prevention and treatment of allergic disorders. He also directed the Covid Long-Hauler’s program while at Tanner Clinic and the Metrodora Institute in collaboration with the Long Covid Foundation and React19.
After receiving his medical degree from Penn State University College of Medicine, Dr. Jones completed a residency program in internal medicine and subspecialty fellowship training in allergy, asthma, and immunology at Creighton University Medical Center. Dr. Jones is board certified by the American Board of Allergy and Immunology.
Dr. Jones is internationally recognized for innovative food allergy treatments including oral and sublingual immunotherapy as well as publishing the first diagnostic algorithm for a subtype of hereditary angioedema. Dr. Jones has served as the principle investigator for clinical trials involving primary immunodeficiency, hereditary angioedema, Sjogren’s syndrome, mastocytosis, mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), Long Covid, and asthma. He is published in peer-reviewed journals and is a national and international speaker at medical meetings. He is a Hereditary Angioedema Allies Award Winner and has also earned numerous awards including Most Compassionate Doctor, America’s Top Physicians, Patient’s Choice Award, and Salt Lake City’s Best of Utah’s Body and Mind 2022 #1 Allergist. He was honored by the governor of Utah for his dedicated work nationally and internationally in food allergies, Long Covid, and immune deficiency disorders.
My website: drdougjones.com; myimmunenetwork.com
Non-profit website: fastoit.org
Australia clinic: immunitygroupaustralia.com
About Global Allergy Immune Network (GAIN)
Global Allergy Immune Network (GAIN) is an innovative hybrid medical company based in Salt Lake City, UT, where patients can be seen in person, but also care can be taken to the patient via telehealth. GAIN strives to help those who may have fallen through the cracks or not had access to specialist care. https://globalallergyimmune.com/
Medical Travel & Digital Health News (MTDHN): Please share your background and the focus of your work – which is pretty innovative.
Douglas Jones (DJ): I’m a medical doctor and have been working in private practice for the past 18 years, specializing in allergies and immunology or complex immune disorders.
Our practice started with pioneering some innovative food allergy treatments. At the time, it wasn’t widely accepted. However, we became well-known for this specialty and started treating patients from all over the country and internationally.
From that experience, we co-founded a few nonprofit organizations, including a clinic in Australia that we still currently oversee.
Once our food allergy treatments became well-known, our patient volume increased. The clinic that I now own is called, Global Allergy Immune Network (GAIN). Our focus is to try and take care of as many people as possible and close the existing barriers between the patient and the doctor, especially with different regulations and issues.
We even began caring for people who have Long COVID disorders. Sometimes, those patients are so sick or fatigued, it’s tough for them to get to the doctor and travel. Not to mention the fact that there are not many specialists willing to work with them.
What we’re trying to do is provide some options for those who can’t afford to travel or are not well enough to travel. This provides access to care – expert care.
We’re really all about trying to hear those who may feel unheard or serve those who may feel underserved. We make an effort to take care of patients in some niche areas and have gained significant expertise to help them.
MTDHN: Are you expanding beyond Australia on an international level?
DJ: Yes. We’ve been asked to set something up in some countries in Europe.
While nothing is far enough along to discuss in detail, our priority was to make sure that our clinic in Australia, which has been in existence over two years now, was successful and able to survive.
Once we were able to do that, then we started exploring opportunities elsewhere. Our interest in Europe came from the fact that we have existing contacts and networking opportunities. Ultimately, we aim to replicate the same outpatient-based care model we have in the U.S. and Australia.
MTDHN: Do you personally go to Australia?
DJ: Yes, I visit twice a year. I don’t currently have a medical license in Australia, so we’ve hired local doctors and nurses who provide the care on-site. I’ve trained them in my areas of expertise and oversee their work as an external advisor.
That was always the goal: for local doctors and nurses to be able to provide that high-level care. Many times, they just needed the resources and education that empowered them to do so.
We own the facility and I work closely with the medical team, but they are the ones treating patients day-to-day.
MTDHN: What does your patient profile look like?
DJ: As an American board-certified physician in allergy and immunology, I am also co-jointly board certified in internal medicine and pediatrics. With my specialty area, I’m able to treat both children and adults.
Our food allergy population is primarily pediatric. But as we move into more complex immune disorders, like Long COVID, vaccine-related injuries, autoimmune disorders or immune deficiencies, we tend to see more adults.
MTDHN: Are there any areas of the world that are particularly impacted by these issues?
DJ: Australia is actually nicknamed the “food allergy capital of the world.”
Back in 2014, we had pioneered our food allergy treatment and people in Australia caught wind of this. They started coming over to the U.S. because this type of treatment was not available or offered elsewhere.
Many families in Australia lived in fear and desperation because a microscopic amount of a particular food could cause a potentially life-threatening reaction in them or their children. It was an immense burden on these families both emotionally, logistically and financially.
We began treating upwards of 60 families in Australia and New Zealand and even had a whole apartment complex where families were all staying and being treated.
When COVID hit, many families were on lockdown and could not travel. Plane tickets and relocation became too expensive which often resulted in parents temporarily separating because of jobs and responsibilities. But despite the cost and stress, they believed the treatment was worth it.
When international travel came to a halt from COVID, one of the families who had planned to come to the U.S. reached out and asked if we’d ever consider starting a clinic in Australia because the country could really benefit from our services. They looked into it but encountered a lot of red tape. But, the father was a lawyer and helped us work through the legalities and challenges. He offered to help run the business side while we focused on the medical oversight.
Instead of investing in his family and children’s treatments, the father ended up investing in an opportunity to offer our treatment to his country.
Since then, we’ve been steadily growing and we’re now serving patients from across all parts of the country. We also realized that we could work with local doctors in different countries and see if we can enhance access to care for more people.
It has been awesome to see what we’ve been able to do.
MTDHN: Can you talk a little bit about the not-for-profit organizations that you established?
DJ: Absolutely! One organization is called the Food Allergy Support Team, which has been running for nine years. We are strictly a volunteer-based group of doctors and our only goal is to try and enhance treatment and accessibility for individuals living in desperation. We are primarily dedicated to education and research, helping people who are living in fear with food allergies.
We host an annual conference every June. This year, we were able to have over 200 people attend our conference from five different countries – U.S., Ireland, London, Australia and Canada. We’re starting to make an impact and spread.
The other not-for-profit organization is in Australia, called the Allergy Microbiome Foundation. This one just recently got approved to further our educational resources so we are still developing there. It was a process getting government approval.
MTDHN: We’ve been hearing from a lot of people about autism and the microbiome connection. Are you involved at all in that?
DJ: I’m not specifically involved with the autism population.
We’re more just looking at the different aspects of the microbiome, not only in the gut, but also the skin and lungs because their microbiome exists in those areas.
I want to focus on the brain connection and more on how it affects mood, depression, anxiety and other types of disorders. I’m also interested in how the microbiome may affect autoimmunity. So, different types of autoimmune disorders have been more of our focus.
MTDHN: What are the most common food allergies?
DJ: Milk and milk products are well known allergens but eggs, peanuts, tree nuts and wheat can also be problematic.
Sesame allergies are becoming prevalent and, among adults, shellfish allergies are more common.
MTDHN: Do you help diagnose what the allergy is and then provide treatment?
DJ: Yes. We have pioneered specialized treatment.
A decade ago, we’d diagnose and be able to distinguish food allergies from sensitivities or intolerances (which are not the same.) If somebody has a particular adverse reaction to food, everyone wants to just call it a food allergy, but they don’t all carry the same risk.
With true food allergies, it can be potentially life-threatening. So, we focus on diagnostics in that area and then offer treatment.
Our treatment entails one of two approaches:
First, we can use commercially available foods. We start with microscopic amounts at certain doses and time intervals. We’re able to administer these but it doesn’t need to be done by an expert. However, don’t try this approach at home on your own.
By performing this treatment in a certain way, we can reconfigure and retrain the immune system. Instead of recognizing this food and reacting in a potentially life-threatening way, it allows the body to tolerate this food. This can be life-changing for patients and families.
For example, there is one FDA-approved product that’s a “pharmaceutical grade” peanut flour that comes in a capsule. It’s primarily available through our nonprofit organization.
We actually found that more than 95% of the doctors doing this treatment in the country just use commercially available peanut flour, which is a fraction of the cost to the patient than the pharmaceutical grade.
So, instead of thousands of dollars per month on pharmaceutical grade peanut flour, for literally the cost of peanuts, we can deliver this at a much more affordable price to the patients.
We’ve demonstrated in thousands upon thousands of patients that commercially available foods do work. Personally, for me, it was a nice lesson on getting back to the microbiome and the effects that food can have. The microscopic amounts of food that we’re delivering to patients are changing the immune system. The power of food is real and the influence that it has on that microbiome is real.
When we give these commercially available foods, we can either do it orally where you swallow the product or give it in a sublingual route where it just sits under the tongue and then gets exposed to the body. It takes some time, but I always say slow progress is better than no progress.
MTDHN: For people living far from Salt Lake City and needing this treatment, what should they do?
DJ: There are a couple of different options:
First, if you go to FAST OIT website, there’s a map listing professionals that are in our organization. We list them as practices that are doing this type of treatment. People can go to the map and find a great practitioner.
Second, Global Allergy Immune Network now offers a hybrid model where we’ll see patients in person, but we also offer telehealth options.
I maintain an interstate compact licensing so that we’re licensed in most of the United States, and we can offer remote care. So, if an individual lives in a particular state (although there are some states that don’t participate in the compact) they can access virtual care. This will hopefully fill in the gaps for some of those underserved areas where there may not be access.
MTDHN: What is the cost for treatment and is it covered by insurance?
DJ: The cost of treatment depends upon the state and the insurance.
In most cases, it will be covered by insurance. Of course, this is getting more difficult because insurance is covering less and doctors can’t cover their overhead anymore.
I always tell people to check their current coverage. In the worst case scenario, if someone does not have coverage, treatment requires a 6-12 month process with total costs between $5,000 to $10,000. .
MTDHN: Can you briefly discuss Long COVID treatments? I know we are scheduled to have a follow up interview focused on this issue.
DJ: It’s a big topic.
But just to briefly answer, the main symptoms are fatigue and neurological symptoms. People can have something called neuropathy where they may have certain pains or “pins and needles.” Other symptoms include brain fog and joint pain.
People can also have reactivation of viruses within the body. Sometimes people may have cold sores or Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), a virus that is most known for mono, and it can cause chronic fatigue syndrome.
So those are a lot of the predominant symptoms. Treatment is not a one size fits all because it really depends on what’s going on with that person.
Is it more neurologic driven? Is it more autoimmune driven? Is it more just inflammatory? Is it a combination? What is it?
What we try to do in our clinic is assess and try to understand that person. And I always say that I want to meet people where they are and try to guide them to where they want to go in an individualized plan.
Long COVID is one where it absolutely has to be individualized to the person because not everyone’s the same. Some treatments work for some people, some don’t work for others. And it really gets down to discerning what that root cause is.
We are working feverously to try and understand better testing, and I’ve actually tried to work with the Long COVID Foundation. I’ve met their founder and am trying to work with them to further research.
Additionally, there’s another group called the React 19, which involves a lot of people that had adverse reactions to the COVID vaccine, for instance. They have very similar symptoms. They
are getting something called “long vax” where they’re getting very similar symptoms to Long COVID, but it was actually post-vaccine. They’re struggling with a lot of neurologic, fatigue or autoimmune complications.
So I’m working with those foundations to try and understand the population better, obtain better diagnostics and research so that we can better treat them.