For too long, medicine has treated Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (AATD) as a rare condition affecting only the liver and lungs. This narrow view has left millions of people undiagnosed, untreated, and suffering from preventable diseases. The Mark Egly Foundation exists to fundamentally transform how the medical community understands, diagnoses, and treats AATD—and in doing so, revolutionize preventive medicine itself.
Through the integration of Uniting Doctors into The Mark Egly Foundation, we are creating a global network of physicians, researchers, and medical educators committed to bringing groundbreaking discoveries to clinical practice. We regularly share new research findings, clinical evidence, and treatment protocols that dramatically expand the standard of care across virtually every medical specialty.
The current standard of care waits for disease to manifest before intervening. We are changing this paradigm by:
Mark Egly's research has uncovered connections between Alpha-1 Antitrypsin deficiency and 152 autoimmune diseases, multiple forms of cancer, and numerous neurological, cardiovascular, and inflammatory conditions. Yet current medical practice:
The result? Millions of people worldwide suffer from preventable diseases, undergo unnecessary treatments, experience early disability, and die prematurely—all because the medical community doesn't recognize the role of Alpha-1 Antitrypsin in their conditions.
The evidence is overwhelming. The question is no longer whether standards should change, but how quickly we can implement these life-saving changes.
Current Standard: Test for AATD only when unexplained liver disease or emphysema is present, typically after significant organ damage has occurred.
New Standard We're Advocating:
Why This Matters: Early identification allows for preventive intervention before irreversible organ damage, potentially preventing dozens of downstream diseases.
Current Standard:AAT augmentation therapy is approved only for severe lung disease (emphysema with specific lung function criteria) and, in some cases, severe liver disease.
New Standard We're Advocating:
Why This Matters:Waiting for severe organ damage contradicts the fundamental principle of preventive medicine. Early intervention can prevent disease progression and improve quality of life.
Current Standard:AATD is considered a pulmonology and hepatology concern, rarely discussed in other medical specialties.
New Standard We're Advocating:
Why This Matters:AATD is not a single-organ disease. It affects multiple systems simultaneously, requiring coordinated care across specialties.
Current Standard:Diseases like Alzheimer's, many cancers, and various autoimmune conditions are viewed as distinct entities with separate, unrelated causes.
New Standard We're Advocating:
Why This Matters:Treating individual diseases without addressing the underlying protease imbalance is like bailing water from a sinking ship without plugging the hole. We must address root causes, not just symptoms.
The Revolutionary Discovery:Mark Egly's research demonstrates that in AATD patients, the brain is under attack from within the body due to uncontrolled proteases—not merely self-destructing as previously believed. This fundamentally changes our understanding of neurodegeneration.
Current Standard of Care:
Our Mission to Change the Standard:
The Evidence:
The Impact:If we can prevent even a fraction of Alzheimer's cases through early AATD identification and treatment, we could save millions from cognitive decline and spare families from devastating losses.
The Revolutionary Discovery:Mark Egly's patent filing outlines how AAT deficiency creates an environment conducive to cancer development and metastasis through multiple mechanisms: chronic inflammation, impaired immune surveillance, and dysregulated tissue repair.
Current Standard of Care:
Our Mission to Change the Standard:
Why This Matters:Multiple members of Mark Egly's family died young from various cancers—breast, lung, prostate, ovarian, stomach. Had their AATD been identified and treated early, some of these deaths might have been prevented.
The Revolutionary Discovery:The 152 autoimmune diseases identified in Mark Egly's research share a common mechanism—uncontrolled protease activity due to insufficient Alpha-1 Antitrypsin.
Current Standard of Care:
Our Mission to Change the Standard:
The Evidence:Clinical observations show that some autoimmune patients with AATD experience symptom improvement when AAT levels are normalized through augmentation therapy.
The Revolutionary Discovery:AAT deficiency contributes to vascular inflammation, atherosclerosis, and thrombotic events through protease-mediated endothelial damage.
Current Standard of Care:
Our Mission to Change the Standard:
The Revolutionary Discovery:AAT deficiency affects respiratory health through multiple pathways beyond traditional emphysema—including recurrent infections, asthma-like symptoms, bronchiectasis, and inflammatory airway disease.
Current Standard of Care:
Our Mission to Change the Standard:
Mark Egly's patent emphasizes disease prevention over cure pursuit — a principle that aligns perfectly with the Hippocratic tradition but has been largely abandoned in modern medicine's focus on treating established disease.
The Modern Hippocratic Oath states clearly:
"I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure."
This fundamental principle guides everything we do at the Mark Egly Foundation. On our unitingdoctors.com website, we prominently feature both the classical and modern Hippocratic oaths because they articulate our core mission: preventing the suffering that comes from late diagnosis and delayed treatment.
The Reality of Incurable Diseases:Many conditions linked to AATD—Alzheimer's, ALS, certain cancers, advanced emphysema—have no cure once established. Yetwe have evidence that addressing AATD early can prevent or delay many of these conditions.
The Question We Must Ask:If we cannot currently cure these diseases, why aren't we making every attempt at prevention? Why do we wait for irreversible damage before intervening?
The Foundation's Position:
Physician Education:Through Uniting Doctors, we provide:
Medical School Curriculum:We advocate for:
Public Awareness:We educate patients about:
We fund and facilitate research that:
We work with:
Through our Clinical Resource Centers and Uniting Doctors network:
We develop:
The standard of care is changing. Will you lead the change or follow it?
Join our Uniting Doctors network to:
You have the right to early diagnosis and preventive treatment.
If you or your family members have:
You deserve AATD screening. Contact us to learn how to request testing and connect with knowledgeable physicians.
Help us build the evidence base that will change medical practice.
We facilitate collaborative research on:
Prevention is not only better medicine—it's better economics.
We can help you:
Every day we delay changing standards of care, people are dying from preventable diseases. Families are experiencing losses that could be avoided. Children are developing conditions that could be prevented.
Mark Egly's family paid the ultimate price—lives cut short by diseases that we now understand are connected to AATD. His 45-year search for answers has given us the knowledge to prevent others from suffering the same fate.
But knowledge without action saves no one.
The Mark Egly Foundation is committed to transforming medical practice as quickly as possible. We have the evidence. We have the expertise. We have the network. What we need is the medical community's willingness to embrace change.
We recognize that changing standards of care is complex, requiring:
We are committed to providing:
We're not asking physicians to abandon evidence-based practice. We're asking them to embrace new evidence that could save millions of lives.
Imagine a world where:
This is not fantasy. This is achievable through systematic implementation of the knowledge we already have.
The Mark Egly Foundation is making this vision reality—one physician, one patient, one policy change at a time.
Visit our Changing Standards of Practice section regularly for:
Healthcare Providers: Join Uniting Doctors and access clinical resources
Patients: Request AATD testing and connect with informed physicians
Researchers: Collaborate with us on studies that will change practice
Institutions: Implement AATD screening and early intervention programs
Everyone: Share this information with those who need it
The standard of care is changing. The question is not whether, but how quickly.
Join us in making prevention the standard, not the exception.
"I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure."
— The Hippocratic Oath
This is not just an oath. It is our mission. It is our promise. It is why we exist.
Contact The Mark Egly Foundation today to learn how you can be part of this transformative movement in medicine.