Reprinted from the Danvers Herald with permission of Community Newspaper Company.

By Myrna Fearer/ mfearer@cnc.com
 

Becky Symmes Lee, M.D., always admired the doctors she knew as a child. Now, as a physician with Harbor Medical Group, an affiliate of North Shore Medical Center at 1 Hutchinson Drive, Dr. Lee has a chance to be the same kind of doctor she once looked up to.

"My vision of a doctor was the doctors I remembered growing up," she says. "They really got to know the whole family."

The newest member of the Harbor Group at the Women's Health Center, which she joined about a month ago, Lee is proving that a woman can be a wife, mother and an effective physician at the same time. It's something that would have proved much more difficult years ago.

"When I think of the women who came before me," Lee muses. "They had to break down a lot of barriers to get to where I am today. The whole culture of medicine has changed."

Once medicine was a field dominated by men. Now women outnumber their male counterparts in freshman classes in medical school. Residencies have become friendlier to both men and women, as well, with hours more conducive to families.

"To have a baby during residency was taboo," Lee says. "I had my daughter, Caroline, (almost 3) during my second year of residency. There were nine babies born during my residency."

As a youngster growing up in Danvers, Becky Symmes, daughter of David and Sally Symmes, was interested in health in part because of her older sister, Melissa West, now a nurse in the Topsfield school system.

"She was my mentor growing up," Lee says. "She taught me my bones early on."

With a deep interest in science and health, Lee went to Dartmouth to go into teaching or medicine after graduating from Pingree in 1994.

"My concern (about medicine) was with the lifestyle," she says. "But I was really drawn to working with patients."

Her commitment may have been reinforced by a relationship with Dr. Brenda Minor, a senior member of Harbor Medical Group and Sally Symmes' primary physician.

"I started going to her when I was in college during my premeds (pre-medical school courses)," Lee says. "She'd always say maybe one day I would consider coming here (to the Women's Center). I thought she was kidding."

With medicine definitely in her future, Lee was accepted to UMass Medical School in Worcester after receiving her undergraduate degree in 1998. In the interim, while at Dartmouth she met her future husband, Ken Lee from Michigan, now an attorney with a Boston firm.

The two have been together for 11 years, weathering medical school and residency and Boston University Law School for Lee. They were married in 2000 and two years later, Symmes Lee graduated from medical school.

"Looking back, Ken put up with so much," says Lee, adding that since he's the son of a radiologist, he probably had a better understanding of a physician's life.

After receiving her MD in 2002, Lee did her internship and residency in internal medicine at Lahey in Burlington.

"In the midst of my residency, Brenda (Minor) called and asked me if would consider coming to the practice after residency," says Lee, adding that family friends Dr. Tony and Chris Patton, had been talking Lee up to their doctor, Maury McGough, MD, of Harbor Group based at North Shore Medical Center in Salem. "She and Dr. Minor thought there were two different women."

Recently, Lee finished her residency program, including an extra year as chief resident, taking time to have her second daughter, Charlotte, in June. Dr. Becky Symmes Lee started seeing patients three weeks ago at the Women's Health Center on Hutchinson Drive.

There are some advantages to practicing in one's hometown, where the Lees also reside, especially when babysitting can be shared between grandparents and other family members. Some people may feel more comfortable with someone they know. But, there can also be a downside if others perceive her as the Becky Symmes they knew as a little girl growing up in Danvers rather than Dr. Rebecca Symmes Lee, internist.

"I've already seen a lot of people I know from my past," says Lee, who, professional at all times, introduces herself as Dr. Lee without mentioning any previous connection. And it seems to be working to her advantage. "One of my first patients is the mom of a friend of mine growing up.

"It's nice to see people whom I've known all of my life now being part of their life in a different way. I'm seeing patients here, raising my family here and staying part of the community."

Name: Rebecca "Becky" Symmes Lee, M.D.

Occupation: Internist

Address: Harbor Medical Group, Women's Health Center, 1 Hutchinson Drive

Years of experience: 4

Age: 30

Goal: To care for my own community.