- With Mayo Clinic oncologist
Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
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Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
Edward Creagan, M.D.
"The magic of the electronic village is transforming health information. The mouse and keyboard have extended the stethoscope to the 500 million people now online." — Dr. Edward Creagan
The power of the medium inspires Dr. Edward Creagan as he searches for ways to share Mayo Clinic's vast resources with the general public.
Dr. Creagan, a Newark, N.J., native, is board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology, and hospice medicine and palliative care. He has been with Mayo Clinic since 1973 and in 1999 was president of the staff of Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Creagan, a professor of medical oncology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, was honored in 1995 with the John and Roma Rouse Professor of Humanism in Medicine Award and in 1992 with the Distinguished Mayo Clinician Award, Mayo's highest recognition. He has been recognized with the American Cancer Society Professorship of Clinical Oncology.
He describes his areas of special interest as "wellness as a bio-psycho-social-spiritual-financial model" and fitness, mind-body connection, aging and burnout.
Dr. Creagan has been an associate medical editor with Mayo Clinic's health information websites and has edited publications and CD-ROMs and reviewed articles.
"We the team of (the website) provide reliable, easy-to-understand health and wellness information so that each of us can have productive, meaningful lives," he says.
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Stress blog
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Dec. 19, 2009
Spirituality — A source of strength amid adversity
By Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
As a cancer and hospice physician, I care for people at the end of their lives. The average survival time for patients we see in our hospital is about 22 days. Daily I see the importance of spirituality as individuals reach out for consolation and strength from outside of themselves. The name that they use for this higher power may be different. It may be God, Prophet, Lord or Allah — or it may be an unnamed force.
I've come to believe that the need for spirituality — belief in a higher power — must be inherent in humans, much like the need for water and oxygen. We may have different belief systems, but at the end of the day we all reach for something over and above ourselves. As many of you have commented, taking care of ourselves includes nurturing our spirituality.
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If the stress in your life is more than you can cope with, get help right away.
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On a far lighter note, I want to share with you a new symptom of stress. I woke early one morning, did my usual workout and then hurriedly dressed for work. When a patient asked me to write a prescription, I reached into my jacket pocket for a pen. Much to my amazement (and my patient's), I pulled out a toothbrush! I think this is a new benchmark for burnout.
Has anyone else ever put their toothbrush in their pocket thinking it was a pen? A reminder that we need to slow down and live in the moment.
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