Beyond the Drip: Dr. Sohail Masood, Home Infusion Pioneer and IVIG Trailblazer, on Building KabaFusion with Patient-First Care

John Lub (0:03)

Hey everybody, my name is John Lub, host of Beyond the Drip, and I want to welcome you to this month's Beyond the Drip. This is episode 19, we're in season 3 of Beyond the Drip. First thing I want to do is thank our sponsor Prochant. Prochant is the nation's largest and best revenue cycle management company for Infusion Pharmacy. And so I am super excited here. We named it Beyond the Drip because when it comes down to Infusion, oftentimes there's so much that goes into our industry that's beyond just the medicine that's dripping into a human being.

And so I want to welcome our guest today.

Dr. Sohail Masood is the CEO and Chairman and Founder of KabaFusion. Dr. Masood, thanks so much for being here with us today.

Sohail Masood (0:49)

Thank you very much for inviting me.

John Lub (0:51)

I can't tell you how excited we are, Dr. Masood, to have you here with us. I think it's something that I wanted for a long time, just knowing a little bit of your story. Before we get started, I want to make sure to introduce wonderful co-hosts, and so Brian O'Sullivan of the O'Sullivan Group. Hi, Brian, welcome back.

Brian O'Sullivan (1:06)

Welcome. Thank you. I'm really interested in hearing Dr. Masood's story as well.

John Lub (1:11)

Yeah, absolutely. Paula Roth, EVP of Infusion at ProChant. Hi, Paula.

Paula Roth (1:19)

Hi, John.

John Lub (1:20)

Hi, everybody.

Absolutely. Brandon Carpenter, CEO and Founder of MedEdge. Hi, Brandon, welcome back.

Glad to be here. Right. Hi. Also, near Dallas, so Pam McIntyre, and Pam, you have three companies now, so I'm going to stick with Infusion Expertise and McIntyre. But Pam, you're in Dallas, so you know what I'm feeling with the 103 degrees, right?

Paula Roth (1:44)

Hotter than the hinges on Hell's Door.

John Lub (1:47)

There it is. Well, we've got an amazing show today. Dr. Masood, we're so excited to have you here. Now, these folks right here are all chomping at the bit to ask you a whole bunch of questions about Infusion and where is it going and how do we tackle this and what would you recommend? But before we do any of that, I want to just talk about your story. I'm a little fascinated with your story. I'd love to hear the story. Grew up in Pakistan, yes? Yes. And came to the United States at 19 alone.

Amazing. Maybe talk us through how a kid in Pakistan, lost your father at SIT, ends up in the United States at 19 alone, no support system.

How do you navigate to pharmacy in general? Where does that even start?

Sohail Masood (2:44)

Thank you very much, John. Hope I meet everybody's expectations. You just hyped me too much. Now I'm under pressure.

John Lub (2:53)

No pressure. Just fun, Dr. Masood. Just fun.

Sohail Masood (2:56)

I came in 1981 from Pakistan. I was 19 years old.

What I did back home was an equivalent of your high school.

When I came to Chicago, that's where I first landed.

I was doing my undergraduate at Northeastern Illinois University. I was there for a year and a half, and then moved to Los Angeles. That time, really, I had no idea what I really wanted to do. I got my visa. I came here and then luckily, my brother, Aslam, he came around the same time. He moved from England. He was there for four years after he left Pakistan. He left in 1976 He was in England. He moved here. He was in Chicago. I was in Chicago, but both of us were students. No money, no nothing. We were three guys in one studio apartment in Chicago. My brother from England, he was sending us some money. He was a certified accountant. That's how we started our journey in America, both of us together. Aslam is still with me. He's my Chief Financial Officer at KabaFusion.

There are really tough times. As you all know, money is scarce. Coming from Pakistan, I had a little bit background in English language, but definitely American language is very different than what we grew up hearing in Pakistan. A little bit of American accent and things we learned from Hollywood. Mostly, they were Second World War movies somehow. Those are the ones that ended up in Pakistan. So coming to America, a lot of things I didn't even know. I saw the first mailbox in my life. I had no clue how to even put my envelope in the mailbox to be sent out.

Those days, technology was very primitive. We didn't have a phone in the house, so we had to go use a public phone. My mom was still back in Pakistan, so I would call her. And every time I call her, I will cry. You know, I miss my mom and all that. My dad died when I was very little, and my brothers, gradually, they moved out of the country. So I was really with my mom. I was the last boy with her, and I had three sisters back home when I left Pakistan in 81 I really missed them a lot. I felt like I kind of abandoned them. So coming here, doing all the things, going to school, not knowing what the future is, not knowing if I'm going to live in this country or go back. I really wanted to go back at that time, but as time passed, I really started feeling more comfortable here. At USC, I applied to School of Pharmacy by chance. And it's a funny story, but I have to tell you why I applied to USC School of Pharmacy.