Howie Mell, MD, MPH

A board-certified emergency medicine and emergency medical services (EMS) physician licensed in six states.

About

Howie Mell is a board-certified emergency medicine and emergency medical services (EMS) physician licensed in six states. Before he ever put on a white coat, he ran calls as a firefighter/paramedic in the Chicago suburbs, where he learned that medicine happens at the worst moment of someone's life, and that showing up matters. He earned his MPH at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) School of Public Health and his MD at UIC Rockford, and completed his emergency medicine residency at Mayo Clinic.

He has served the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) as a national spokesperson and as past president of its Illinois chapter. He is a frequent guest on emergency medicine podcasts and lectures on the specialty throughout the U.S. He practices in the Midwest, but home base is North Carolina.

A husband and dad of four, he writes about the front line: the patients, the systems, and the moments that never make the chart. Some of his patients never went home; he tries to tell their stories the way they deserve. His research publications are collected on Google Scholar, and he shares updates on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.

On The Podcast by KevinMD

Stop calling it burnout: COVID denial and the wounds ER doctors carryOct 11, 2026

Latest articles

Physician voices

Why I stay in emergency medicine: a dancer at nearly 100

Howie Mell, MD, MPH

September 19, 2026Sep 19, 2026

People ask what being an emergency physician is like, and they expect the blood, the saves, the codes, the worst nights. Those happen, and they matter, but I try not to carry those home. What I try to keep is…

Conditions and diseases

COVID trauma in emergency physicians can surface suddenly

Howie Mell, MD, MPH

August 20, 2026Aug 20, 2026

I'm the guy who doesn't need help at the Apple Store. Thirty years as the family IT department, the one who sets up everybody's phone at Thanksgiving. So I can't tell you why, when I bought a new iPad Pro…

I’m the guy who doesn’t need help at the Apple Store. Thirty years as the family IT department, the one who sets up everybody’s phone at Thanksgiving. So I can’t tell you why, when I bought a new iPad Pro in June 2022, I walked into the store to have them move everything over for me. Habit, maybe. A slow afternoon. I figured I’d be out in ten minutes.

I always …

Physician voices

Being an emergency physician is magical

Howie Mell, MD, MPH

June 20, 2019Jun 20, 20192

A great deal has been written about physician burnout, especially in emergency medicine. Inefficient electronic medical records, rapidly decreasing resources, increasing job demands, litigation risks, huge debt burdens from training, and on and on. But in my opinion, much of…

A great deal has been written about physician burnout, especially in emergency medicine.

Inefficient electronic medical records, rapidly decreasing resources, increasing job demands, litigation risks, huge debt burdens from training, and on and on.

But in my opinion, much of this is common to any career. Show me a person that doesn’t ask themselves at least once, no matter what their occupation, “Why am I still here?” and I’ll show you someone …

Read more…

Being an emergency physician is magical