Sabina Lee, MD, FACP

Sabina was born in Seoul, Korea and immigrated to United States in 1974 with her family so that her father could pursue his career in Aerospace Medicine. She attended Emory University from 1981 thru 1985 where she majored in both Chemistry and Cultural Anthropology. Sabina’s senior honor thesis was on Australian Aborigines and their rituals called “walk-about.” Throughout Sabina’s life, different cultures and different ethnicities fascinated her, due in part, she is sure, to her exposure to the two very different cultures.

Sabina attended the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham from 1985 to 1989. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at Baptist Medical Centers in Birmingham in 1992 and held the position of chief resident from 1992 to 1993. Then she attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for Infectious Diseases Fellowship from 1993 to 1995. Sabina worked with many HIV patients with atypical infections and led AIDS Clinical Trial Groups (ACTG), studying Cryptococcus meningitis and CMV retinitis.

Sabina then joined Duke General Medicine in the year 2000 and became Assistant Professor in Medicine in 2003. She enjoys teaching medical students and medicine residents and values the opportunity that Duke has to offer in practicing new and innovative medicine. Sabina was first exposed to Duke Integrative Medicine in 2006 when the First Collateral Meridian Pain management therapy conference was held. Collateral Meridian Therapy (CMT) is a non-invasive acupressure technique using mathematical model of 108 acupoints within 12 collateral meridians. CMT has been clinically applied to treat various pain and acute injuries. Sabina now practices CMT to treat acute injuries and chronic pain for my patients.

As one of the integrative Self Care for Medicine Resident Faculty mentor, Sabina became familiar with Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program at Duke Integrative Medicine. She found this meditation program to be so essential that she plans to incorporate this intervention for improving the “Work Culture” at Duke General Medicine clinic as North Carolina Medical Society Leadership Scholar Project 2009.

Sabina is very excited to be one of the Bravewell Fellows Class of 2010 where she will continue to integrate many aspects of integrative medicine in her practice and to be a player in bringing forth the new innovative patient care model to primary care.