When it comes to the delivery of quality pharmaceutical care, Robby Timberlake can fill the prescription.

Timberlake, along with his partners John Bullock and Larry Baggett at Baggett's Pharmacy in Levelland, is helping to expand the role of the pharmacist in West Texas and across the nation in new and different directions.

Less than 100 yards from where he honed his knowledge of science and mathematics at South Plains College, Timberlake is dispensing knowledge and care as a pioneer in the area of clinical pharmacy. With Timberlake's guidance, Baggett Pharmacy became the first pharmacy in Texas to be involved with administering medication on its premises in 1997, providing injections for allergies, immunizations and other medications. In addition to providing the injections, the pharmacy also provides screening for diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure, and body fat, along with weight-loss counseling.

"I like the interaction with people," Timberlake says. "You feel that you're taking care of people. You're really on the front line of trying to protect people and get them well. Pharmacists are in a really unique position in the community." The interaction with people was also something he enjoyed during the two years he attended South Plains College. Timberlake, who was born in Levelland, graduated from Levelland High School in 1966. He joined his friends and a few of his former high school teachers at the college from 1966 to 1968, earning an associate of arts degree as a pre-pharmacy major.

After graduating from South Plains, Timberlake went on to attend the University of Houston, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy in 1971. His first job was at The Prescription Shop in Littlefield, before moving to Big Spring and working at Leonards Pharmacy in 1972. A year later, he returned to Levelland to work with Larry Baggett at Baggett's Pharmacy, eventually buying a portion of the ownership.

Timberlake was a driving force in the creation of Pharm-Vac, a business which helps provide education and supports 40 pharmacies in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Alabama and Minnesota through quarterly newsletters, buying opportunities and clinical pharmacy. Timberlake also is serving as a primary investigator for the pharmaceutical company Merck for a clinical drug study involving Mevicor, a cholesterol-reducing medication. Baggett Pharmacy is one of only three clinical sites in Texas participating in the study, the first pharmacy to be included in such an investigation nationwide.

"We get to take off our pharmacist hat and put on our scientist hat," Timberlake says. "You really are acting as a scientist when you participate in a clinical drug study. You're collecting laboratory readings, gathering other information from patients, and getting the data to the research company."

Timberlake also is excited about the resurgence of a technique called compounding, the process of combining chemicals to form medication not commercially available or that may have been discontinued. It also helps in cases in which a patient may not be able to take a certain form of medication, such as if a patient needs a liquid because he or she cannot take a capsule.

In addition, different medications can be combined through the compounding technique into a gel which can be rubbed on. If a liquid medication is needed, Timberlake and his fellow pharmacists also can add flavoring, with more different flavors than Baskin Robbins.

"I really like compounding," Timberlake says. "It's the old way pharmacists started out, and it still has applications today. It helps the patient to be more compliant when taking a medication, making something that's a little more palatable. Occasionally some physicians think this can't work. We're slowly trying to educate them."

Timberlake recently was appointed as an adjunct professor of pharmacy for the clinical pharmacy staff of the newly established Texas Tech School of Pharmacy. He and his wife Shari, who also attended South Plains and now teaches second grade in Sundown, have been married for 27 years. The couple has one daughter, Michal, a senior at Sundown High School.

Timberlake is the senior warden at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Levelland and is active in other church activities. He is a member of the Levelland Area Chamber of Commerce and the Texan Club at South Plains College, and he previously has participated in the United Fund.

Timberlake was selected as the South-Midwest Triathlon Official of the Year in 1992 and 1993. He also received the USA Triathlon Commissioner of Officials Award in 1994.

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