Paul Kivela, MD, MBA, FACEP is an emergency medicine residency trained and board certified emergency physician.  Dr. Kivela is currently Vice Chair for Clinical Operations and a Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

He was elected and served as President of the American College of Emergency Physicians from 2017-18.   He represented the diverse membership and served as spokesperson for the over 38,000 members.  As President, he developed multiple initiatives to improve patient care, decrease practice burdens to emergency physicians, develop future leadership and ensure the successful future of the specialty of emergency medicine. During his time on the ACEP Board, he has served in multiple capacities including liaisons to the quality, sports medicine, legislative and regulatory and injury prevention committees.   He successfully chaired the Emergency Medicine Foundation and raised record amounts for research.  He continues to work to further empowering emergency medicine and developing an emergency medicine based integrated health models to solve the healthcare problems including transitioning to value based care, improved mental health access and care, and effectively delivering treatment to those with addictions.  Dr. Kivela has also worked diligently to improve mental health care in the US.  He assigned a task force that developed the ICAR2E algorithm that aims to serve to improve recognition of and initiate early treatment of suicidal patients.  He also worked to improve survivability in cardiac arrest and mass casualty events by involving the public in creating Until Help Arrives , a program which teaches Stop The Bleed and Hands Only CPR.  As Past President of ACEP, he served as the international representative for the College. In 2023 he was the recipient of ACEP’s highest honor, the John G. Wiegenstein Award for outstanding contributions to the College and the specialty of Emergency medicine,

Besides being a practicing emergency physician, he is a recognized expert in the areas of risk and error reduction, strategy and the economics of medical practice. He is known for his innovative and collaborative approach to finding solutions, bringing together disparate parties, and fostering future leadership. He is frequently invited nationally and internationally to speak on his research, leadership and the future of medicine.   He works diligently to keep up on medical advances that affect his patients. He has lectured both nationally and internationally including delivering presentations in India, Turkey, Jordan, Greece, France, England, Malta, South Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Canada, Ecuador, Aruba and Mexico.   We was the recipient of the International Gold Medal at the 2018 Intercontinental Emergency Medicine Congress.

Dr. Kivela attended undergraduate and medical school at the University of Illinois.  He did his emergency medicine residency at the LA County-UCLA after which he completed an administrative fellowship .  He graduated from University of Tennessee with his MBA.  He was recognized as one of the outstanding living alumni at the 150^thanniversary of the University of Illinois.

From 1995-1998, Dr. Kivela became a member of the founding academic core faculty of the Resurrection-Michael Reese Residency Program and served Michael Reese as both Medical Director and Chief of Service.

Dr. Kivela practiced full-time clinically as the managing partner in a single hospital democratic group in Napa, California from 1999 through 2019. He was recognized as the 2018 Napa County Physician of the Year,

In 2019, Dr. Kivela took a sabbatical and joined Code 3 as their Chief Strategic Officer.

Over his career, he has directed and served in leadership positions for large groups, small independent groups, and academic entities and in urban, suburban, and rural environments for both hospital and free-standing emergency departments and urgent cares.  During the pandemic, he spent a week a month working for Indian Health Services at a critical access hospital.

Outside of the emergency department, he has served as chief medical officer for Medic Ambulance since 2006 and has helped advise and shape county EMS policy.  He has also helped oversee the innovative ALS-RN transport program for Solano county and one of the California Community Paramedicine Pilot Projects specifically one that improves outcomes and saves money by decreasing hospital readmissions.

In the 1990’s he co-founded and developed EMEDS, Inc., an educational company that was the first entity to receive accreditation to provide online Category 1 CME in emergency medicine.

He has designed software and has twice been acknowledged to have one of the top 20 annual innovations in academic emergency medicine by Society of Academic Emergency Medicine and has a patent pending on a software program that decreases medical errors.

He believes that the key to health and longevity is fitness, resilience, mental attitude, develop outside interests, decrease inflammation and follow the quest to achieve a work-life balance. He has published his theory that the key to surviving COVID-19 is decreasing inflammation and limiting viral load.  He has a passion for health and wellness and was founder and has a personalized medical practice, Elan Medical.  Although he thinks the term is misleading, he believes the causes of “burnout” are multifactorial and changes need to be made in the healthcare system to re-establish physicians in the driver’s seat to direct healthcare to improve working conditions and patient outcomes.

Dr. Kivela’s talents are not limited to medicine and he has an appetite for making the most of life and in order to do that requires a high degree of efficiency and working smarter rather than harder.  He is a husband, parent, athlete, and coach.He is a twenty-year veteran member of the of Physician Ski Patrol currently at Sugarbowl Resort in Norden, California. He served as medical director and been part of the medical committee of multiple golf tournaments including the US Open, Presidents Cup and Fry’s, Safeway, and Fortinet PGA Tournaments.
Dr. Kivela is is an accomplished distance runner, winning all-state honors in high school, winning all conference in the Big10 Cross Country Championships in college, and being recognized as one of the top regional distance runners in his post-collegiate years winning the Illinois 15Km state championship and also being named one of the top age group runners in Southern California by Competitor Magazine.   He was a three-time winner of George Huff Award during his undergraduate career and a three-time Avery Brundage award winner for academic and athletic excellence during medical school. He now combines his running with golf into the hybrid sport of speedgolf.  He was the 2021 US Speedgolf senior national champion and finished runner-up in 2022 and 2024.  He qualified and competed in the 2013 World Speedgolf Championships. He can complete a round of golf and run the 5 miles distance in under an hour.  As an assistant high school cross country coach and team physician, his team qualified for the California State Championship.   He has a subpage to his blog with a collection of his insights called insidexc.com

His interests are varied including travel, photography, wine making and he is an avid fan of electric vehicles and sustainable energy solutions.  His photography has been published in multiple publications.

He was farmer and proprietor of Kivela Vineyards, and tended to 2000 Syrah plants and actively crafted both a Syrah and dry rose.

In 2013, Dr. Kivela made the commitment to decrease his carbon footprint and take advantage of the many benefits of Electronic Vehicles and alternative travel commuting.  He was an early adopter of ebikes and electric cars. He was also the contractor and installer of his own solar field.   He is a fan of the tiny house/RV movement, sustainable farming and farm-to-fork.