The School of Medicine at UAB can trace its roots to the 1859 founding of the Medical College of Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. In the early 1900s, due to the work of Abraham Flexner, the medical school became more closely affiliated with the University of Alabama.The move of the college from Mobile to Tuscaloosa took effect in 1920.

In 1936, the University of Alabama Extension Center was opened in Birmingham. In 1943, Governor Chauncey Sparks created the four-year Medical College of Alabama with the passage of the Jones Bill (Alabama Act 89). In 1944, Roy R. Kracke was named dean of the Medical College of Alabama and began assembling teaching staff.

In 1945, the Medical College of Alabama was moved from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham and the university’s medical center was founded.[1] In November 1966, the Extension Center and the Medical Center were merged to form the “University of Alabama in Birmingham,” an organizational component of The University of Alabama. In 1969, UAB became an independent institution, one of three autonomous universities within the newly created University of Alabama System. The university’s name was changed in 1984 from the “University of Alabama in Birmingham” to the “University of Alabama at Birmingham.”

As of 2019, the School of Medicine has 805 students, 990 residents and 1,483 faculty in 27 academic departments. The UAB School of Medicine is home of The Kirklin Clinic, a multi-disciplinary medical home; University Hospital, one of the largest academic hospitals in the country; and faculty serve the new Children’s of Alabama hospital.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Alabama_School_of_Medicine