Dr. Gary Cohan

Over the course of his career, Dr. Cohan has learned as much from his patients as they have from him. “After 30 years of medical practice, my patients have taught me what they truly desire and deserve from their primary care physician,” he says. “They want a doctor who listens more than he speaks, who takes time, who sees them as partners in their own health.”

Dr. Cohan’s philosophy is both simple and progressive: the best care happens when doctor and patient work together as collaborators. His approach integrates the best of traditional Western medicine with selected, evidence-based alternative therapies—always grounded in prevention, early detection, and thoughtful risk assessment. He designs each care plan around the whole person, emphasizing lifestyle, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management before turning to medication. His goal is not just to extend life span, but to optimize health span — the years a person spends living vibrantly and well.

Believing that comfort and trust are essential to good medicine, Dr. Cohan has built his practice to reflect old-fashioned values in a modern, high-tech setting. Patients describe his office as a safe, caring, and comprehensive environment — one where they are never rushed, where calls and emails are answered promptly, and where test results are reported quickly and clearly. His warmth, humor, and empathy help patients feel at ease, while his thoroughness and advocacy inspire confidence. “If we can have trust, mutual respect, and great communication,” he says, “we can take great care of you.”

Dr. Cohan’s diagnostic acumen was forged early in his career, managing complex cases during the height of the AIDS epidemic in Philadelphia. His courage and compassion during that era shaped his lifelong commitment to understanding the whole patient, not just the disease.

After earning degrees in English literature and biology at Amherst College and conducting neurobiology research at Cambridge University, he attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where his experiences amid the early AIDS crisis became a defining moment of moral clarity. He became a leading advocate for compassionate-use access to experimental HIV therapies and trained at San Francisco General Hospital during his internal medicine residency at the Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania as one of the few young physicians willing to immerse himself in AIDS care when many others were afraid.

In 1992, Dr. Cohan moved to Los Angeles, joining Pacific Oaks Medical Group, where he quickly became a nationally recognized HIV specialist. As treatments advanced and his patients aged, he evolved his practice to focus on comprehensive internal and preventive medicine — applying his same thoughtful approach to aging, longevity, and whole-person health. For over two decades, he led his own concierge-style practice and a 20-physician collaborative, setting a gold standard for primary care in Los Angeles.

Now at Atria, Dr. Cohan continues to deliver high-touch, relationship-based medicine within a multidisciplinary environment where top specialists collaborate to protect every facet of his patients’ well-being.

A natural storyteller with a quick wit and a big heart, Dr. Cohan considers it a victory when patients leave his office feeling better than when they arrived. Beyond his clinical practice, he has hosted medical talk shows on KABC and KFWB radio, written widely for print and digital publications, and served as medical advisor for HBO’s acclaimed And the Band Played On. He lives in Los Angeles with his two beloved rescue dogs, Cody and Winston — the latest in a long line of six rescues.