Each year, the Department of Internal Medicine publishes a small print magazine renamed VITALS last year. Midway through this issue’s production, it was clear that its focus would need to adapt, as did most things in 2020. As department chair E. Dale Abel, MD, PhD, put it in the new issue’s introduction, “It is safe to say that 2020 did not present us with any of the challenges we had anticipated facing in 2019. What you will discover in these pages is a department that proved extraordinarily nimble and resilient.”

As with previous issues, copies of this issue of VITALS will soon be mailed to departmental and collegiate leadership at every academic medical center in the country. Copies will also be delivered to our division administration offices for those who are interested in picking up a copy. A digital PDF version is available for download and we have also loaded it into an online reader for anyone who likes to flip through the pages.

We hope you enjoy this issue of VITALS and welcome your feedback. Our special thanks to designers Ann Armstrong and Grace Culbertson for their creativity and diligence on this project. We are also grateful for the assistance of University of Iowa Health Care’s Marketing and Communications team. This year has shown us in surprising ways that we truly are #InThisTogether.