Sanah Christopher, MBBS (Hawaii): For me, well-being is balance and harmony in various aspects of living that brings joy, contentment and future growth. Identifying and focusing on the aspects of work/life that are gratifying is an essential step in pursuing wellness.

Ersilia DeFilippis, MD (New York): Even when we were redeployed throughout various intensive care units in March and April, my priorities were making sure I was staying physically healthy and getting my sleep every night.

Although my day-to-day routine has changed since then, I always ensure that when I come home from the hospital, I put away at least one hour for "me" time to decompress and recharge for the next day.

So much of my personal sense of wellness comes from my relationships with my parents, my fiancée and my friends. Those connections whether by phone, Zoom conferences or in person (with social distancing) bring me strength emotionally and psychologically.

Additionally, I enjoy reading fiction, jigsaw puzzles and playing tennis which allow me to relax and transiently "escape" from my work life.

Zain Asad, MD (Oklahoma): "Imbalance" is the sense of not having enough time to finish all your required tasks.

I struggled to maintain a balance in the past. Now I'm trying to formally learn time management and tools to improve work-life balance.

The use of the Eisenhower decision matrix has been extremely helpful in triaging tasks and it has allowed me to manage my time more effectively.

In addition to clinical work, I try to allot at least 20% of my work time to activities like clinical research and scholarly tasks that I find very satisfying and meaningful.

Just like scheduling all my work-related tasks, this year I've tried to schedule time for "wellness" and activities that "spark joy."

I started bicycling and found it enjoyable and rewarding as it helps me clear my mind and it is good exercise too.

Janet Wyman, DNP, RNCS, AACC (Michigan): Finding time for balance is always a challenge but this year is atypical. Our work worlds have required reworking nearly every aspect of interacting with patients and co-workers, making it easy to be consumed at work just to get the job done.

I find keeping balance requires a hard stop at some point in the day, knowing there is always tomorrow.

This requires prioritizing and re-prioritizing, focusing on what is essential. Then letting go when I walk out.

Wyman's three tips for achieving wellness:

1. Regular exercise and activity
2. Rethinking socializing (i.e., "People bubbles, #maskup, virtual meetings)
3. Limiting social media and "checking the news"

Prashant Rao, MBBS (Massachusetts): The heightened sense of spirit, belonging and community that has taken place during COVID-19 has been a rare highlight during this period. Local entrepreneurs have been raising money to provide masks, meals and education to those most vulnerable.

These acts of kindness take on new meaning in an otherwise increasingly isolated society. … It was also encouraging to see staff at all levels working alongside each other, with the chief of cardiology leading from the front.

Laura J. Ross, PA-C, AACC (Minnesota): I am optimistic about medicine's ability to evolve. I'm so proud to be part of this health care community that rose to the challenges of COVID and found ways to improve care.

Quarantine led to new telemedicine visits in my cardiology practice, and we utilized technology to optimize care such as helping patients download free smart phone apps to monitor heart rates, evaluating pitting edema via video visits, and medication inconsistencies were easier to discover when patients were at home looking at their medicine cabinets.

Linda Lee Hart, DNP, RN, ACNP-BC, AACC (Minnesota): The challenges of 2020, in particular those related to COVID-19, have amplified the need for and the power of advocacy.

The pandemic has highlighted many of the challenges in our health care system, including access and resource availability and utilization.

The pandemic has offered the ACC the opportunity to lead efforts in advancing and promoting access to care by advocating for legislation related to telehealth including parity of reimbursement, supporting all members of the team to practice to the top of their license, promoting access to cardiac rehab, EMR interoperability, and liability reform.

Now more than ever, engagement with advocacy is critical, so the good work started during the pandemic can continue to benefit our patients and our profession.

Samuel O. Jones IV, MD, MPH, FACC (Tennessee): As the COVID-19 pandemic stopped the world in its tracks, health care was not immune and faced immense challenges.

Advocacy has been critical to explain to lawmakers, hospital administration and payers how to make necessary changes to care for patients, to protect health care workers, and to ensure the health care system stays financially solvent.

We must continue to address the social disparities in care, which have been highlighted over the last few months and are widening during this crisis.

We need to ensure that telemedicine, now that it has been shown to be an effective modality, remains a viable option for all patients in all locations.

Finally, the ongoing financial instability that health care systems and practices face is not going away so we must continue to advocate for a stable health care workforce so that patients can get the quality care they deserve.

Smadar Kort, MD, FACC (New York): The challenges our medical community experienced and are still experiencing are unprecedented.

Participating in some ACC national and international webinars and communicating with other cardiologists around the world, it was clear that many of us struggled with the same challenges regardless of where we practice.

It was also clear that our voices were not always heard and some of the information provided to the public has not always reflected the reality we live in.

The need to tell our stories, advocate on our own behalf and on behalf of our patients [is] obvious.

Roxana Mehran, MD, FACC (New York): The cardiology community needs to come together. The tendency we've seen in recent years is for organizations to form committees, task forces or special events which focus on this issue.

These efforts are typically comprised solely of the women and/or underrepresented minorities they are intended to focus on. However, if we restrict this work to just the affected groups, we don't actually address the full issue, which is systemic. So, it's important to also address diversity and inclusion from an institutional standpoint, which means participation and commitment of organizational leaders to meeting certain goals and standards.

This includes not only hospital CEOs, department chairs and fellowship program directors, but also leaders of professional organizations, academic journals, regulatory agencies – everyone – taking a hard look at their scope of influence and decisive action to assure diversity and inclusion across the board.

Relegating this job to those who are not in a position to make lasting change is ineffective.

Our field needs to internalize and advocate for this change collectively because if we do not, we remain stagnant as a profession, permit disparities to persist, and miss important opportunities for advancement of care of our increasingly diverse patient population.

Pamela S. Douglas MD, MACC (North Carolina): Although diversity is sometimes conceptualized as representativeness for its own sake, it is rather the recognition that variety in talent, character and experience are necessary to advance the art and science of cardiovascular medicine and achieve the mission of ACC.

Diversity alone achieves little without inclusion and equity.

Areas in which individuals, organizations and professional societies can strive to achieve diversity, equity and inclusion include:

• Diversifying cardiovascular students and trainees, the workforce, and organizational leadership.
• Ensuring respectful professional behavior, and equity of opportunity and support.
• Ensuring freedom from bias, discrimination, bullying, and harassment in all forms.
• Elimination of personal, institutional and structural racism and sexism.

Craig J. Beavers, PharmD, FACC (Kentucky): There has been so much literature/information coming out this year in relation to cardiovascular disease management in general, but also related to COVID-19 and the overlap of cardiovascular disease and COVID-19.

It can be mind boggling. I have tried to sift through data via my traditional routes, including journal e-mail alerts and social media (especially Twitter, @beaverspharmd). ACC's Summer COVID-19 Education Series and COVID-19 Hub have been great additions. In addition, I've really tried to embrace as much virtual/digital education as possible.

Brenton Bauer, MD, FACC (California): Despite the pressures and challenges that 2020 has placed on the medical profession, in my opinion, this has not stopped the scientific community from pushing forward for the betterment of our patients.

While we all miss the social networking aspect of traditional in-person conferences, the transition to a virtual platform has allowed the opportunity for many physicians including myself to attend more events this year than is usually possible (e.g., less expensive registration/free, no travel, etc.).

On a more day-to-day basis, it has been very useful for me to take advantage of a daily email subscription (e.g., ACC Journal Scan, ACC CV News Digest, etc.) that curates the best and most relevant content along with summaries from experts in the field.

Regina Druz, MD, FACC (New York): One of the major innovations as a result of COVID-19, of course, was a massive and rapid expansion in virtual care. However, it is only part of a story. We are seeing a transformation in practice delivery for cardiac services, through the digital health tools, and creation of dynamic and adaptive ecosystem that integrates technology to serve patients and clinicians.