The history of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery

Although formally born in 1924 as one of the four faculties of the University of Milan, the School of Medicine and Surgery deepens its roots in the health professions and arts that can be traced back to the Fourteenth century in Milan.

This age-old tradition is earmarked by the public health measures adopted during the serious plague epidemics that afflicted the city and by Ca' Granda, the Hospital for the Poor built in the Fifteenth century upon the initiative of Francesco Sforza, which is today the prestigious seat of the Faculty.

The teaching activity was formalized in the Eighteenth century with the creation of the Hospital schools of anatomy, surgery, obstetrics, and the subsequent development of pathological anatomy, laboratory medicine, and psychiatry in the Nineteenth century. Meanwhile, several associations and welfare initiatives laid the foundations of institutions that are still active today, including the Rickety Institute (later Orthopedic Clinic) and the Serotherapy Institute of Milan.

The Clinical Specialization Institutes, such as the Institute of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, the Clinic of Occupational Diseases and the Hospital of Contagious Diseases, were established in 1904, and were joined soon after by structures such as the Italian Institute of Stomatology, the Paediatric Clinic, and the Occupational Health Clinic, the first institution in the world dedicated specifically to workers' health.

After the official creation of the Faculty in 1924, the Institutes of Basic Sciences were also established with headquarters in Città degli Studi, where the National Cancer Research and Treatment Institute was inaugurated in 1927.

Right form the start, the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery provided both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes covering the full spectrum of medical education.