David Liebman grew up in a pharmacy. He began as a young boy, helping
out in his father's drugstore, washing medicine bottles and sweeping
floors. When it came time for him to choose a career, he found it only
natural to follow his father into pharmacy. After attending University
of Maryland at College Park, he went on to graduate from Pharmacy School
at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, in 1961. Then
Dr. Liebman set out on an exciting path that would eventually lead him
to take up compounding pharmacy at his own store in Baltimore.
Soon after becoming a pharmacist, Dr. Liebman traveled extensively in
Europe, the Middle East and Israel, trading his pharmaceutical skills
for room and board. Upon returning to the U.S. and receiving a master's
degree in Hospital Administration, he settled in Miami and served as the
Administrator of the Psychiatric Institute of Jackson Memorial Hospital.
He went on to become the head of the Dade County Mental Health Board,
turning a $700,000 per year operation with 7 clinics into a $1.4 million
per year with 15 programs.
Dr. Liebman taught for 4 years at Florida International University,
helping people, who may not have normally obtained higher education,
turn their life experiences into college credits. He earned a Doctorate
degree in Public Administration. Dr. Liebman serves on the Compounding
Committee for the USP and Expert Advisory Panel for Pharmacy Compounding
for the FDA.
After working for twenty years for other people, Dr. Liebman decided it
was time to go into business for himself, practicing his first
love-pharmacy. He came to Baltimore in 1980 and worked for a couple of
years for several large pharmacies, including Giant and Rite-Aid, before
buying his own drugstore, Kaye's Pharmacy, in 1982.
The only way a small, neighborhood pharmacy can compete with a large,
chain drugstore is by offering some service the big stores can not. Dr.
Liebman decided to practice the labor-intensive, but very needed, art of
compounding pharmacy.
Compounding pharmacists create medicinal compounds with patients' unique
needs in mind. The compounding pharmacist collaborates with doctors and
their patients to develop solutions when manufactured medicines fail to
help.
Dr. Liebman and his staff work to create appropriate formulations of
necessary medicines for the fragile infants in the care of the Pediatric
Nephrology unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital. They work with individual
parents to create a flavor and form of medicine that a picky child will
take. Dr. Liebman helps adults who have stomachs that are sensitive to
NSAIDS, but who need relief from arthritis, get medicine through
transdermal gels.
Practicing pharmacy the old-fashioned way -- understanding his patients
and knowing that one medicine is not always suitable for every other
patient -- allows Dr. Liebman to improve patient compliance with
treatment programs. While his philosophy may be old-fashioned, Dr.
Liebman's knowledge is modern and his technology is state of the art!
Dr. Liebman finds working as a compounding pharmacist to be exciting and
ever-changing. He is satisfied knowing that he is helping people live
healthier lives, by providing them with a service they might not get as
easily from the big-chain drugstores.
