By students, for students: team at Toronto Notes endows award to support medical learners
The editors of Toronto Notes, the internationally renowned study guide created and published “by medical students, for medical students,” are taking their historic support of their peers to a new level.
With the aim of continuing to help Canadian medical students for generations to come, the team has endowed the Toronto Notes 2024 Medical Student Award to support medical students with demonstrated financial need at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine in the University of Toronto. The endowed award is the second to be established at Temerty Medicine with proceeds from the student-run publication.
The Toronto Notes for Medical Students Inc. has been giving annually to the Faculty of Medicine (now Temerty Faculty of Medicine) since 2005. Each year, the not-for-profit organization re-invests all available revenue (roughly 80 per cent) generated from its sales to support aspiring Canadian physicians. In nearly 20 years, they have donated more than $4 million to Temerty Medicine.
Toronto Notes began in 1985 as a compilation of notes shared among U of T learners preparing to write their notoriously challenging medical licensure exams. Since then, the publication has grown significantly and is now relied on by learners and medical practitioners from across Canada and around the world each year.
The guide is reviewed and updated annually by a team of over 200 volunteer medical students at Temerty Medicine, under the guidance of over 110 faculty and staff members. The number of publications has also expanded to include clinical guides for a range of medical specialties, as well as Pharmacology You See, a pharmacology guide for students in all health professions that is run independently by students within the MD-PhD program.
“Our model is ‘by students for students,’ so this new award is a great legacy to leave behind,” says Richard Huang, co-Editor-in-Chief of Toronto Notes 2025 and a MD–PhD student at Temerty Medicine. “It’s a representation of all of the students who have contributed to Toronto Notes over the decades—those who volunteered and those who bought the textbooks.”
In addition to supporting students through awards, Toronto Notes donates funds to help support community initiatives at Temerty Medicine and beyond, including student-run conferences and extracurricular activities, explains Nicholas Garrido, also the co-Editor-in-Chief of Toronto Notes 2025 and a MD–PhD student at Temerty Medicine. The team also donates annually to U of T’s Community of Support Program, which helps students from underserved and underrepresented communities in their journey to pursuing medical school.
“It’s an honour to be able to support our colleagues in this way,” says Anita Hu, a production manager for Toronto Notes 2025 and a MD–PhD student. “Being able to do this while being a student at the same time is an incredible way to represent how we as medical students at Temerty Medicine support each other.”
Saim Imran, a production manager for Toronto Notes 2025 and a MD–PhD student at Temerty Medicine, notes that many faculty and practicing physicians have also expressed to him how they still turn to Toronto Notes as a comprehensive medical resource in their later careers.
“I think that's just so cool, seeing how we're able to make a positive impact,” says Imran. “It pushes us to come up with creative ways to provide more resources and increase our sales so we can do even more.”
With almost three decades of medical students stewarding the organization, Huang, Garrido, Hu and Imran asked to acknowledge the dedication of previous teams for making the new endowed Toronto Notes award possible.
They would like to thank everyone who is involved in the Toronto Notes, including the previous Editors-in-Chief (Matthaeus Ware, Megan Drupals, Yuliya Lytvyn, Maleeha A. Qazi, Anders Erickson, Jennifer Parker, Yasmin Motekalem, and Melissa Galati) and Production Managers, and the current editorial team who are fundamental to the success of the Toronto Notes. This includes the Associate Editors, Clinical Handbook Editors, EBM Editors, Chapter Editors, Communications Managers, Online Content Managers, and Copy Editors. They also want to specifically thank Yasmin and Melissa, currently third-year MD students at Temerty Medicine, for their support, advice, and guidance during the transition process as last year’s co-Editors-in-Chief of the 2024 edition of the Toronto Notes.
The photos included, in alphabetical order (starting top left): Anita Hu - Production Manager, 2025; Audrey Jong - Associate Editor, Surgery; Farah Qaiser - Associate Editor, Medicine; Lyra Halili - Associate Editor, Primary; Maleeha A. Qazi - co-Editor-in-Chief, 2022; Matthaeus Ware - co-Editor-in-Chief, 2021; Meera Chopra - Associate Editor, Surgery; Megan Drupals - co-Editor-in-Chief, 2021; Melissa Galati - co-Editor-in-Chief, 2024; Nicholas Garrido - co-Editor-in-Chief, 2025; Richard Huang - co-Editor-in-Chief, 2025; Saim Imran - Production Manager, 2025; Sandra Lee - Associate Editor, Primary; Suhaila Abdelhalim - Associate Editor, Primary; Vrati M. Mehra - Associate Editor, Medicine; Wafa Baqri - Associate Editor, Surgery; Yasmin Motekalem - co-Editor-in-Chief, 2024; Yuliya Lytvyn - co-Editor-in-Chief, 2022; Zhongyu (Hugh) Huang - Associate Editor, Medicine
