Photo by Will Owens

Kevin Lee, left, consults at UNC Hospitals with Dr. Christopher Klipstein from internal medicine.

The Caring Connection

Kevin Lee combines engineering, medicine and public health for compassionate health care

You might call fourth-year medical student Kevin Lee a scientist’s Renaissance man. With degrees in chemical engineering, public health and, soon, medicine, Lee is a dedicated scientist equally at home discussing thermodynamics, infectious diseases or kidney function.

But he loves the arts, too — especially African-American fiction, cartoons and music. He even plays the saxophone.

As his varied academic training and broad interests attest, Lee, a former Weiss Fellow, is not your average medical student. Relatively few medical students are engineers by training, after all. And how many students would take a year away from medical school to explore public health studies, adding an extra year to graduate school?

Lee’s journey from engineer to health care professional was driven by a simple desire — to work with and help people.

Growing up in rural Sampson County, N.C., Lee wanted to be an engineer. “I was always interested in the way things work,” Lee said. “But what I found missing from engineering was the intimate interaction with people.”

While still studying chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Lee decided that he wanted to become a surgeon — one who works to develop relationships with his patients. Lee plans on specializing in urology, which will allow him to counsel people on a primary-care level.

“As a urologist, you get a chance to develop long-term relationships with patients,” Lee said. “It’s relatively unique as compared to other surgical disciplines.”

Urology also appeals to the inner engineer still very much alive in Lee. “Urologists are experts on water flow, from kidneys to urethra,” Lee said. “The hands-on part of me is still interested in the way things work. Engineers are trained to solve complex technical problems. I think my background makes me better able to look at information, synthesize it and solve a problem.”

Urology also overlaps with his primary public health interest, maternal and child health, which he studied at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health during the 2001-2002 school year. “Urology generally
tends to be about men’s health, but it plays a big role for kids and women as well,” Lee said. “Both can have urinary tract troubles that require the attention of a urologic surgeon.”

Lee’s interest in urology and children’s health sparked an interest in spina bifida, a neurological disorder associated with bladder dysfunction. The disorder, which occurs when a child’s spine does not close properly during pregnancy, sometimes leads to paralysis. He started working on a study in spring 2002 with a doctor at UNC-Chapel Hill’s medical school to try to understand the link between spina bifida and bladder problems associated with it.

In addition to spina bifida and maternal and child health, Lee is also concerned about health care disparities in the United States. “In this country, white people tend to be the most healthy. We have a decent understanding about why these disparities exist, but we don’t talk enough about how to fix them.”

Lee’s varied interests make him a good match for the Weiss Urban Livability Fellowship, which funded his year in the School of Public Health. “Health has a place in discussions about urban living,” he said. “As doctors and public health professionals, we worry about infectious diseases and environmental influences, such as those that cause asthma.”

Just as he believes public health can contribute to studies of urban living, Lee feels that he has learned from the other Weiss fellows. “I enjoy hearing what everyone’s take is on any aspect of urban living,” Lee said. “I think the discussions we have give me a perspective I never would have gotten otherwise.”

The amount of time Lee has spent training for his career may sound imposing: five years at MIT, five years of graduate work at UNC, and at least five more years in the medical residency that will come after graduation.

But for Lee, the choice to dedicate so much time to school came easily. “In the grand scheme of things, it’s nothing,” Lee said. “The things that you learn and experience and understand make a difference to your career and your personal life.”

While Lee looks forward to finding out where his medical residency will take him after graduation in June 2003, he doesn’t plan on settling permanently into a typical medical career. “I’ll always be a physician, but not just a physician. For example, my wife and I want to do missionary work some day. And I think that what I’ve learned as an engineer and as a public health professional will serve me well in the future.”

- Elizabeth Spainhour

© 2002, The Graduate School, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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