Continuing His Promise to GBMC Oncology

Years later, patients and colleagues are still passionate about their deep appreciation for Dr. Gary Cohen, former Medical Director of the Sandra and Malcolm Berman Cancer Institute at GBMC HealthCare. In the six years since his retirement, Dr. Cohen has demonstrated his continued dedication to GBMC and its oncology program on more than one occasion, most recently with a generous gift to the Sandra R. Berman Pavilion campaign.

In this new home for cancer care services, virtually every oncology patient will see their oncologist in the oncology clinic. It will house exam rooms, physicians' offices, treatment rooms and more. The welcome area where patients and visitors enter before their appointments will bare a sign commemorating Dr. Cohen’s gift.

“I’m fortunate to have been in a place like GBMC where my skills as a clinician and as an administrator were both appreciated,” Dr. Cohen said.

Even as he was building a world-class cancer program, Dr. Cohen was devoted to his patients. Expert, compassionate care has been a hallmark of his practice, and of the Berman Cancer Institute, from the start. It’s one of the things Dr. Cohen is most proud of as he looks back on his years at GBMC. Dr. Cohen was also a key driver in establishing the clinical trials program, which has elevated the Berman Cancer Institute and benefited all patients at GBMC.

“Clinical trials were what placed us at the cutting edge of cancer care and brought us local and national recognition.” Dr. Cohen said.

The program remains robust for a community hospital. It continues to offer patients the same advanced technology and treatments they might expect from an academic center.

Dr. Cohen is equally proud of having helped to found Gilchrist which, in the early 1990s, was a patient-centered extension of the cancer program. Cancer diagnosis and treatment have advanced dramatically since then, with better outcomes for patients with cancer. Concurrently, Gilchrist has grown to serve patients with diagnoses other than cancer at the end of life and also with serious illness and elders in need of in-home medical care.

Looking back, Dr. Cohen is proud GBMC invested in starting a program knowing it wouldn’t be profitable without ongoing philanthropy. But, as Dr. Cohen says, “It was the right thing to do.

“It was important for us, as a community hospital, to have a patient focus.”

As the oncology program grew – adding the Sheila K. Riggs Radiation Oncology Center, the Sandra and Malcolm Berman Comprehensive Breast Care Center, the Milton J. Dance Jr. Head & Neck Center, state-of-the-art infusion services, the gynecologic oncology program and general surgery – it spread across the hospital. Dr. Cohen has been personally involved with the design of the Sandra R. Berman Pavilion, which will give cancer patients a single destination for care. And his investment in the project philanthropically further cements his belief that this design will improve the care of patients as he strived to do in practice.

All of Dr. Cohen’s achievements on behalf of the Berman Cancer Institute, along with the ways those achievements have enhanced GBMC’s reputation and the care it provides the community, inspired his induction as one of GBMC’s Physician Titans of Care, a prestigious honor. His generosity has earned him membership in both the Joseph S. Keelty Society and the Elizabeth Duncan Yaggy Society.

For Dr. Cohen, this recent gift is more than an investment. Through it, he will honor the memory of his wife, Charlene M. Cohen, who died in 2018.

“She was very committed to GBMC,” he said. “The thought of our names together greeting patients when they first arrive warms my heart. It feels good to be able to support something that was such an important part of my life journey.”