The former Tongji Medical University was one of the medical institutions of higher learning under the Ministry of Public Health. It was initially founded by German Doctor Bolon in Shanghai in 1907 as a German Medical School. In 1927, it was renamed the Medical College of National Tongji University. In 1951, it was moved from Shanghai to Wuhan and merged with the Medical College of Wuhan University. Then, it was named the Central-south Tongji Medical College. The Tongji Hospital, founded in Shanghai in 1900, and the Hankou Union Hospital, founded in 1866, were attached to the Tongji College as teaching hospitals. In 1955, the college changed its name to Wuhan Medical College; and in 1985, it was officially named the present Tongji Medical University. In August 1996, the Ministry of Public Health and Hubei Province decided to construct Tongji Medical University together, and Liyuan Hospital was affiliated as another teaching hospital in the same year. In January 1997, the University passed the evaluation by the State Education Commission, together with the Ministry of Public Health and Hubei Province that allowed funds for the key subjects of the "211 Project".

The College is made up of 4 schools and 9 departments. It offers 9 specialities and 6 quasi-specialities. An educational pattern has been formed which puts the education of undergraduates as the foundation, the education of graduate students as the focal point and actively develops the multi-subject, multi-speciality and multi-level adult education. There are 2 key subjects at the national level and 3 key subjects at the provincial level. The national key subject, general surgery or organ transplantation, was one of the first founded in this field in our country, and is one of the largest experimental and clinical research centers for general surgery and organ transplantation in China. The national key subject, environmental health, achieved the first-class certificate for the environmental influence evaluation of the nation in 1987, and is the only subject that has won this qualification in the medical universities of higher learning in our country. The college possesses 2 key laboratories and 1 clinical pharmacological base under the Ministry of Public Health, 12 institutes, 11 research centers, 21 independent research offices, 3 attached hospitals and 1 affiliated secondary health school. The Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (Wuhan Branch), The Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine (Wuhan Branch), and the German Training Center of the Ministry of Public Health are also located here.

The College now has one academician of the Chinese Academy of Science, more than 1,400 full and associate professors. The entire staff numbers above 7,500. Doctorate degrees can be conferred in 31 subjects and specialities, with 116 tutors for doctoral candidates. 51 subjects and specialities for Master's degrees can be granted with over 540 tutors for graduate students. Post-doctoral research centers have been set up in basic medicine, public health, preventive medicine and clinical medicine. There are nearly 900 Ph.D and master candidates, more than 3,500 undergraduates, over 300 students in the 3-year system, about 160 foreign students. Since 1981, 700 medical doctors and 3000 medical masters have been graduated from here.