Roger Mills
Author - Photographer
Roger M. Mills MD is a graduate of Amherst College and the University of Pennsylvania medical school. He served in the United States Navy from 1971-73, then was a Research Fellow in cardiology at Harvard Medical School. After a 30-year career in academic clinical cardiology, he held various positions with Janssen Pharmaceuticals from 2005 to 2015. At retirement, he was a Senior Director and Clinical Lead at Janssen Research & Development.
He collaborated with Dr. James Young of the Cleveland Clinic to co-author “Practical Approaches to the Treatment of Heart Failure” as well as three editions of “Clinical Management of Heart Failure.” He served on the editorial board of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and 2009 received the ACC’s Simon Dack Award for his service as a JACC reviewer.
His non-fiction books, “Nesiritide” won the 2016 Foreword Indies Bronze Award in the Science category, and “JFK. The Last Speech” won First Place, Non-Fiction, in the 27th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards, 2020.
He’s currently working on his first novel, “Things Happen.”
My Story
I graduated from Culver Military Academy, Amherst College, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and trained in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. After two years active duty in the Navy, I completed my cardiology training at the Peter Bent Brigham (Harvard). I was a clinical faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in its early years, and a full-time faculty member at the University of Florida. I worked as a staff cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic and then joined J&J, first with Scios Inc., and then with Janssen Pharmaceuticals.
My books include Nesiritide, the Rise and Fall of Scios (True Directions, 2016) and a posthumous memoir assembled from the papers of my college friend and double sculls partner, Bernie Witholt, titled 240 Beats per Minute: Life with an Unruly Heart (River Grove Books, 2018). Nesiritide won a 2016 Foreword Indies bronze in science and 240 Beats
Is listed as an “Amazon Bestseller in Doctor-Patient Relations.”
I also contributed to and edited JFK. The Last Speech (Mascot Books, 2018). The book is a companion volume to Bestor Cram’s prizewinning documentary film “JFK. The Last Speech,” and the book won first place for nonfiction in the 27th Annual Writer’s Digest self-published book awards (2020).
After completing the JFK book, I wanted to try my hand at fiction. In the fall of 2022, I took a one-credit online novel-writing course and was hooked. I applied for and was accepted into the Stanford OWC (Online Writing Course) program. I’m halfway through my two years and loving it.
Work in Progress
- Things Happen is a 66,000 work upmarket novel that’s complete. I’ve started querying agents, entering contests, and searching for independent publishers.
- Euphoria is a 20,000 word novella, essentially a Jekyll and Hyde narrative set in the California biotech world of the 90s, that I’ve sent out for some preliminary feedback. Still very much a work in progress.
- I’m about to start a short-story elective, five stories in five weeks, for my summer course in the OWC.
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Roger Mills
Roger Mills is an accomplished retired cardiologist, US Navy veteran, photographer, and writer of fiction and nonfiction.