The Road is Never Straight - CSUSB Magazine - California State ...

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MIXING IT UP — Tim Tyler has
parlayed his business degree from
Cal State and his doctorate in
pharmacy into a rewarding career
in healthcare, in which he has also
taken comedy and used it in his
work with cancer patients.
by Sid Robinson
When Timothy Tyler first
started his residency training
at the Desert Regional
Medical Center in Palm
Springs — then known as
the Desert Hospital — during
his last year of studying
for his doctor of pharmacy
degree at USC, the only
requirement his bosses had
of him was that he play golf.
The plan was good, except
for one small detail. “They
worked me about 80 hours a
week, so I never had the
chance to play,” says Tyler.
Despite a desert oasis full
of golf courses at his disposal,
Tyler focused on his work,
and a year after taking on his
residency, he was offered a
managerial position at the
hospital. More than a decade
Photo by Robert Whitehead
Business and Biology, and Other
Professional Compounds
later, he is now the director
of pharmacy for the
Comprehensive Cancer
Center, the Desert Regional
Medical Center’s outpatient
center for the detection, diagnosis,
treatment and followup
of people with cancer.
A career in healthcare
probably isn’t what Tyler
expected when he graduated
from Cal State San
Bernardino in 1988 with a
bachelor’s degree in — of all
things — business administration
with a marketing emphasis.
He hoped to go into the
field of pharmaceutical sales
after graduation, but he had
trouble finding the job he
wanted. So he returned to his
passion for healthcare and
enrolled in the USC School
of Pharmacy. His studies
included his residency program
at Desert Hospital, and
he earned his doctoral
degree in 1993.
Tyler’s path to the desert
began with the oceans that
border Orange County and
extended east from there.
Born in Laguna Beach and
raised in the beach towns of
Newport and Huntington, he
studied pre-med for two
years at the University of
California, Riverside. He
decided a business degree
would be more practical, so
he transferred to CSUSB and
majored in marketing. Not
giving up completely on the
health sciences, he minored
in biology and psychology. “In
the upper division parasitology
class, I vividly remember
having to come up with 20
specimens for the class. Yes,
20 ‘road kills,’” he explained.
“The challenge was a difficult
one and by mid session I was
reduced to driving on the
soccer field at midnight trying
to swat rabbits with my
tennis racquet. Needless to
say campus security took a
dim view, but they were
laughing so hard they had to
let me go.”
The pharmacist says his
Cal State business degree has
been an asset every day. “I
really do combine both
degrees in my current job. In
operating the cancer center,
I’m still able to impact the
lives of our patients. But I also
administer and manage a
budget and I need to generate
revenues to maintain
business. I’m using both sides
of my brain — the compassion
I need to work with
patients, as well as the technical
skills I need as a professional
and the business sense
I need to run the pharmacy.”
He’s doing more than
running a pharmacy. He was
recently appointed to a fouryear
term on the Ambulatory
Payment Classification (APC)
Federal Advisory Panel in
Washington, D.C. The 15-
member panel advises the
Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services on outpatient
payment for healthcare
and provides insight on
changes to the outpatient
prospective payment system.
Members of the APC Panel
are clinicians who are considered
experts in their fields.
“Along with having input
into federal policy, this gives
me a platform to advocate
for cancer patients,” he said.
“After 10 years here in the
desert, I’ve gotten very active
and vocal in offering advice to
Medicare about how outpatients
pay for drugs.” Tyler’s
efforts are recognized closer
to home, too. In 2002, he
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Spring/Summer 2004
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