This past year has been like no other in our lifetime. With daunting — sometimes heartbreaking — challenges in our organizations, homes, and communities amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we know there have been many demands competing for your time and attention.

To make it easy to find items you may not have seen the first time around (or to revisit your favorite pieces), we've combed through the blog posts, tools, videos, publications, and webinars we produced on a range of topics in the last 12 months. One of IHI’s favorite sayings, “never worry alone,” guided our choices below, in no particular order:

• At the start of the pandemic, some health systems wondered whether they should put quality improvement work “on hold.” IHI President and CEO Kedar Mate, MD, and others argued that — on the contrary — improvement science can and should be used to help solve some of the most pressing challenges in health care, including COVID-19. A team from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center agreed, and explained how using QI methods and tools gave them clarity during the chaos of the crisis.
  
• Not surprisingly, COVID-19 tools were among the most popular IHI website downloads this year. IHI’s Innovation Team harvested the hard-won lessons from organizations who experienced the initial surge of the pandemic to create the Hospital Preparedness for a COVID-19 Surge: Assessment Tool. The Conversation and Action Guide to Support Staff Well-Being and Joy in Work During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic  — which builds on the IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work — offers ideas that health care leaders can test quickly and use to sustain joy in work and well-being beyond the current coronavirus response.
  
• Starting in March, IHI ran a series of free weekly Virtual Learning Hours to invite expert panelists to discuss some of the most important thinking emerging from a rapidly evolving environment. Topics included Centering Equity in the Response to COVID-19 and Crisis Standards of Care.
  
• Black, Latinx, Pacific Islanders, and indigenous and immigrant populations have endured disproportionate harm from COVID-19. Though the multiple systemic contributors to this existed long before the pandemic, what we’re learning now makes it clear that explicitly addressing inequities is essential for meaningful quality improvement. In a brief video clip, IHI’s Kedar Mate explains Why It’s Not Possible to Have Quality Without Equity in Health Care. Dr. Mate also wrote in his November column about Why Anti-Racism Work Is (and Isn’t) Like Addressing Patient Safety. A Harvard Business Review article, A Data-Driven Approach to Addressing Racial Disparities in Health Care Outcomes, describes Brigham Health’s work in Boston, in partnership with IHI's Innovation Team, to develop a data infrastructure to understand the differential impact of COVID-19 on patients and staff and design strategies to reduce harm caused by racism and other forms of structural discrimination.
  
• IHI’s content on Joy in Work, well-being, and workforce safety has been front and center in 2020. Tips for Improving Staff Well-Being During COVID-19 was one of the most popular new posts of the year. A Tool to Promote Psychological Safety During and After COVID-19, by a team at New York City Health + Hospitals/Jacobi, describes how the team used QI tools and methods to promote empathy and support among colleagues even as they were making sense of the initial COVID-19 surge. A special series of Caring for Caregivers Virtual Learning Hours, sponsored by the Well Being Trust, addressed topics that included Psychological Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and Transforming Moral Distress into Moral Resilience.
  
• In September, the IHI-convened National Steering Committee for Patient Safety released Safer Together: A National Action Plan to Advance Patient Safety to provide health systems with clear directions for eliminating preventable medical harm. A self-assessment tool and resource guide accompanied the plan to help health systems implement the National Action Plan’s 17 recommendations.
  
• After years of limited progress, COVID-19 compelled an unprecedented transition to telehealth services seemingly overnight. In an article for Healthcare Executive, IHI presented health care leaders with four elements of focus to ensure the provision of safe, high-quality telemedicine. Using the Age-Friendly Health Systems 4Ms Framework, What to Say During Telehealth Visits with Older Adults offers a handy script to guide telehealth wellness checks with older adults.

And, finally, as we look ahead to what we all hope will be a brighter 2021, it’s worth remembering a moment of global unity from the past year. IHI and many other organizations and individuals around the world contributed to a video that shows that “What Matters to You?” Can Be Said in Any Language.