• I am a board certified General Surgeon with trauma specialization.  This means that I have experience operating on the neck with a working knowledge of anatomy.  I treat all my procedures as surgeries.  This means that I precisely plan and execute these procedures as if it needed to be the world’s best surgery and one’s life depended on it.
• I went to a pretty good school for college and medical school training.  I was in that special Program in Liberal Medical Education at Brown University.  In fact, I had the difficult task of turning down generous offers from Harvard and Stanford to enroll at this program at Brown University.
• I have taught other physicians, surgeons and nurses about cosmetic medicine and injections.  I was a lecturer for Allergan in the past.  Allergan is the maker of Botox, Juvederm, Latisse, and Kybella.

• Allergan somehow thinks I’m important.  In September 2016 at The Plastic Surgery Meeting in Los Angeles (it’s actually called Plastic Surgery The Meeting), I was invited to a dinner reception with Allergan big wigs:  Brent Saunders (CEO), Gavin Corcoran (CMO), Stephanie Brown (Global Head-Aesthetics), Antony Fulford-Smith (VP-Medical Affairs), and Diana Romero PhD (Director of Facial Asthetics).  Not many surgeons got this honor – I think there was five of us – wow, thank you very much for the honor.
• I got an award in 2016 from Allergan for being a “Diamond Level” injector which means that I’m part of the top 4% of their accounts.   In 2016, I injected 66,597 Botox Units, 897 syringes of filler, and had numerous acupuncture patients.

• I have a great deal of experience with needles since I am also an acupuncturist (and a Botox injector and a Surgeon).  Getting injections for Kybella requires a few needle pokes.  I’ll try to be gentle too!
• Having happy patients is my priority.  Hopefully I still have some good Yelp reviews to show this.

• I have valuable plastic surgical backup from my wife, Dr. Tammy Wu, board certified plastic surgeon.  It’s good to bounce ideas and have another surgeon take care of our patients.
• And if it’s worth any consideration, we believe that I made the world’s first plastic surgery webpage.  I think that this is an advantage because I continue to make webpages and my patients have more direct contact with me through my webpages – although they tend to be long and boring.  Well, I stored what I think was the world’s first plastic surgery webpage which I made in 1996 for Brown University:  World’s first plastic surgery webpage designed by me.
• I was the first surgeon in Central Valley California to have access to Kybella.  It was in mid 2015 when I was fortunate to be selected to use Kybella.

About Calvin Lee, MD

Some bits of information about me.  How about a chronological approach:

I was born in New York City.  Then I was fortunate to graduate as valedictorian from Pearl River High School in New York.  I was accepted to all the great colleges / Ivy League institutions I applied to.  I was lucky to get a 100% acceptance rate.  I was accepted to Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Brown University etc.

I ultimately choose to go to Brown University because I felt that it was the best fit for me.   I enjoyed being enrolled in the prestigious Program in Liberal Medical Education at Brown Unviersity.  (I just found the link on Wikipedia!)  When my wife and I were both in this program which was very unique and only accepted 60 students world-wide per year.  Currently, I believe it is now 90 students per year.  It is the only program of its kind in the Ivy League University systems.  I had two other student-colleagues in this program who had turned down generous admissions from Harvard to enroll at Brown with the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME) – thus I wasn’t alone in my thinking!

I spent 8 years at Brown University culminating in my medical degree, and it was there where I met my wife, Dr. Tammy Wu.  She ultimate graduated top of our medical school class at Brown.   I’m just glad they let me graduate.  I also had the opportunity to do graduate with a neuroscience degree along with some research.

I was also the concertmaster violinist of the Brown University Orchestra and I won the university concerto competition twice.  It was one of the highlights of my life to perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto around 1992 with the Brown University Orchestra.

Here’s a small video excerpt of that highlight of my life at Brown University (Audio)

After my neuroscience and medical degree, I went to pursue surgical training at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, and further training at Southern Illinois University.  That gave me a great taste for the midwest.  I then ventured to set up a life in a small town in the middle of Kansas (but I never made it to Kansas except for two planning trips).

However, through a series of compromises and the desire to pay back student loans, I found a wonderful opportunity to work as a trauma and general surgeon in Modesto, California.  I had job offers in Los Angeles, and San Diego as well.  It was good to have choices.  I decided to give Modesto, California a try with the McHenry Medical Group.  They were very kind to help me become very comfortable with surgery in Modesto, CA in 2003.  I had a very high volume of surgeries and I felt very well respected in my position.  To this day I am super grateful.   The McHenry Medical Group and I ended up going in separate directions in 2006.  They have since renamed themselves First California Physician Partners.

In 2006 my wife and I decided to focus our future in Plastic Surgery and Acupuncture.  We founded Surgical Artistry and I pursued my education as an Acupuncturist starting with medical acupuncture courses affiliated with Stanford University.   I may have forgotten to mention above that my wife is a world class plastic surgeon (Dr. Tammy Wu who also has a degree in biochemistry).  Visit her page about Breast Augmentation.  And page about what makes Dr. Tammy Wu unique.

In 2009, I won a spot to play violin with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas (San Francisco Symphony conductor).  This was actually my second time playing at Carnegie Hall in New York City.  I had played there before with the Brown University Orchestra.  Following the YouTube Symphony performances, I had some solo opportunities in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.

Performance in Taipei, Taiwan

I started teaching myself piano and in 2015, I won a piano competition in Beverly Hills, California and as a result I was able to solo with an orchestra performing in Los Angeles.  I have since received expert piano lessons from Yan Yan Chan, a piano teacher residing in Manteca, CA.

I show up at 1:44 and I am playing till 4:30.

About Surgical Artistry

Surgical Artistry is a husband and wife surgical team.  We strive to work together to take care of you.  Dr. Calvin Lee is a board certified General Surgeon and Dr. Tammy Wu is a board certified Plastic Surgeon.  Our practice is very high volume, but we have as our top priority to provide you with the highest quality of results, safety and comfort.  However, the high volume does allow us to perfect our technique to the highest technical level.  Surgery is our lives and we love Modesto.

We are founders of the Gallo Center for the Arts, founding title sponsors for the Surgical Artistry Modesto Symphony Pops Series / Surgical Artistry Modesto Symphony Fat Cat Classics 2006-2009, and founding title sponsors for the Surgical Artistry Modesto Marathon.

We also support Rina’s Run in Ripon along with running training groups: Modesto Moves and Ripon-Manteca Moves.  I want to specially thank Doctors Medical Center of Modesto for providing tremendous support for Modesto Moves and Ripon-Manteca Moves.

(209) 551-1888

Surgical Artistry
4754 Dale Road
Modesto, CA 95356

We moved March 22, 2019