The Faculty of Medicine is the oldest and largest faculty of Wroclaw Medical University. It was established on November 14, 1945, as one of the six faculties of Wroclaw’s University and Technical University. The opening lecture was given by Ludwik Hirszfeld. The scientific staff consisted mainly of professors from the Jan Kazimierz University in Lvov. In 1950, the Wroclaw Medical University was established, consisting of the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Pharmacy. Since then, 16,068 medical doctors and 4715 dentists have graduated. On February 12, 1958, Prof. Wiktor Bross was the fi rst in Poland to perform open heart surgery, which he did at the Faculty of Medicine, and on March 31, 1966, he performed the first kidney transplant from a living donor. These achievements were significant in European medicine. A great number of prominent scientists have conducted research at the Faculty of Medicine, including Professors Ludwik Hirszfeld, Zygmunt Albert, Edward Szczeklik, Witold Orłowski, Stefan Ślopek and Hugon and Zofia Kowarzyk.

Two new faculties, the Faculty of Postgraduate Medical Training in 1992 and Faculty of Dentistry in 2000, were created based on the organisational structure and lecturing staff of the Faculty of Medicine. After these changes, the Faculty of Medicine assumed more of the educational duties of the University. In 2002 the Faculty received the PE-EN ISO 9001 certificate for its educational and research programs in accordance with the standards defined by the Polish Centre for Testing and Certification.