Russell G. Buhr, MD, PhD

Dr. Russell Buhr is a pulmonary and critical care physician who has an outpatient practice in Westwood, and cares for hospitalized patients at UCLA facilities in Westwood and Santa Monica and at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. His primary clinical interests are complex asthma, COPD and a rare lung disease called Alpha-1 anti-trypsin (AAT) deficiency.  He is board certified in internal medicine, critical care medicine and pulmonary disease.

In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Buhr conducts clinical, translational, and health services research on treatments and programs to prevent COPD exacerbations and keep patients with advanced lung disease out of the hospital. The main goal of this research is to help patients with lung disease preserve their independence and stay as healthy and active as possible. 

Dr. Buhr is a first-generation university graduate who grew up in the rural Willamette Valley of Oregon before moving to Los Angeles, where he graduated with honors from Azusa Pacific University. He completed his medical degree at the University of Southern California with induction into the graduate honor society. He completed his internal medicine residency at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC, where he served as Chief Resident at the Washington, DC Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He then completed his pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship at UCLA. He also received his PhD in Health Policy and Management at UCLA, focusing on ways to prevent unnecessary hospitalizations in patients with COPD.

Dr. Buhr is an associate professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine and the Fielding School of Public Health, a Fellow of the American Thoracic Society and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.