- 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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Oct. 4, 2008
Finding that meaningful purpose in life
By Edward T. Creagan, M.D.
Sometimes a casual comment can provide an insight and perspective into the stress and frustrations and disappointments we all deal with on an everyday basis. Let me explain.
I sat on a bus with a colleague as we were traveling between hospitals. He had just entered our cancer medicine training program and was at the start of a four-year journey. He was ten years older than his classmate, and I was curious about his background. Here is what I learned.
Following medical school, he became the CEO of a medical device company in an upper midwestern state. Over a six-year period, he made "tons of money" and had everything that money could purchase. However, at the end of the day, there was a nagging, gnawing sense that he was really not making a difference.
Sure, the shareholders were happy and the stock prices were skyrocketing, but there was a palpable emptiness. He then shared with me that he needed to do something in which at the end of the day he could have a sense that somehow the world or maybe even one person was a little bit better because of his efforts.
This meant stepping down from his high-income perch, working nights and weekends, and dialing back a very affluent lifestyle. He shared that this was a deliberate decision on his part and a great sacrifice for his wife and his young children. However, he was willing to endure the grind of going back into the medical arena with the hope of making a difference.
I think what I heard was the following: We can endure just about anything if somehow we can find meaning or purpose in our situation. Dr. Viktor Frankl, the Holocaust survivor about whom we have written in the past, made the comment that if you give me a "why" to live, I can find out "how" to live. If there is meaning, if there is purpose, if there is some redemptive value in our stress and pain, somehow we can marshal the fortitude to move on.
Am I completely off base with this perception? I am thick skinned and would sure like to hear from our blog citizens on my interpretation of a casual conversation on a bus.
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