Reflecting on a career

Janssen awarded lifetime achievement award for his work in spine surgery

Dr. Mike Janssen, owner of Saratoga Resort and Spa, was awarded the Life-time Achievement Award in Spine Surgery for the world by AOSpine in November.

Janssen said he had mixed feelings about the award. At first he was excited, but then he said he was sad, realizing life-time achievement awards sometimes indicate someone is at the end of their life or after they have passed on. "Most people are considered for life-time achievement awards after they have passed on rather than when they are making a difference," Janssen said.

Janssen, who is 55, said for the first time he started to reflect "Is my career over and does a life-time achievement award mean there is nothing left to really accomplish?"

Janssen said there should be a variety of achievements in a lifetime. "That is what we try to do. To make achievements to accomplish something and then we move on to something else, to try to influence people and to make the world a better place," Janssen said.

In November, Janssen traveled to Davos, Switzerland where the World Economic Forum is located, to receive the award.

"I am used to speaking in front of 500 to 5,000 people, but it really took some time for me to reflect and give an acceptance speech," Janssen said.

"It's a prestigious award ... but is made think about what I have done and what I still want to do," Janssen said.

Janssen said he loves his career. "I still do about 500 complex surgeries a year." In addition to traveling, Janssen tries to spend as much time in Saratoga.

"I don't want to quit [spine surgery] yet, because I still think I have a talent to do surgeries that my younger partners don't. It takes many years ... to develop a skill into a talent," Janssen said.

"I think it is your job to develop a skill into a talent, because there is a difference. What I want to do, is to continue to achieve balance," Janssen said.

"2013 was a great year. We won a world championship in off shore boat racing, I received a life-time achievement award in my career in spine surgery and we have made some great investments and changes in the resort to have the real tipping point of going forward," Janssen said.

Janssen said he wants to continue to have balance with the businesses that he has, including Saratoga, and continue to transfer his knowledge to surgeons who come to visit him. He wants to continue to take care of patients and he hopes to continue to do that for another 10 years.

Janssen said he wants to spend the next three to five years publishing. He has hired two new researchers and with the last 20 years of patients, they have a vast knowledge to share with people on a global level.

Janssen's working career did not begin in spine surgery. In fact, it didn't start in medicine. Janssen worked as a mechanic, property manager and business manager for his father before going to the University of Iowa to earn a Zoology degree.

Janssen went to medical school in Kansas City in 1982. It was there he met his wife, Sharon, and they were married in 1984.

Janssen received a fellowship after his residency in orthopedic surgery and went to Switzerland to study spine surgery.

After living in Switzerland, Janssen moved to Denver in 1990 where he and wife worked as physicians. He has remained in Colorado since 1990 where he has worked as a spine surgeon. He is also licensed in Wyoming, Missouri and Georgia.

Janssen dedicates 25 to 30 percent of his time to non-profit spine surgery education throughout the world.

Janssen said he was the chairman of the largest organization of spine surgeons in the world. The organization, AOSpine, is based in Switzerland and has 50,000 members. Janssen said the organization has an endowment of $1 billion. "That endowment allows us to continue to do education and develop the most advanced technology for taking care of patients with orthopedic and spine-related problems around the world," Janssen said.

Janssen, who is board certified in orthopedic and spine surgery, said he believes in having a goal in life which is how a person is going to change the world he lives in and make it a better place.

Janssen said for him, it is transferring knowledge and experience and doing surgery in remote places as a volunteer.

In 2000, Janssen built a medical facility in Denver that has a private cadaver lab. Janssen said the lab is used to train surgeons to become better surgeons. Janssen has also invited students from Saratoga and Carbon County School District No. 2 for science camps and watching live surgery.

At the facility in Denver, Janssen also hosted close to 100 international surgeons who spend three months to one year to learn more about spine surgery.

"I love educating, I love teaching," Janssen said. "I love taking care of patients."

Janssen said he uses a lot of time developing new technologies including implants that will dramatically improve patients lives. "It's more of a challenge today, because the FDA (Federal Drug Agency) regulations to introduce a new product to go into a human body requires five to 10 years of testing and evaluation to prove safety and efficacy," Janssen said.

Janssen said he is fortunate and blessed because his wife of 30 years has supported him and allowed him to continue to keep searching out all of his dreams and balances. "I think that is where I get my happiness from."

For Janssen his way of changing the world is one patient at a time by improving their quality of life through surgery, and to train people to go to their home and change the lives of 1,000 other people.