Xi'an Medical University (XMU) was originally Shaanxi Provincial Health School,founded in 1951.As a constantly developing institution of higher learning, XMU has gone through multiple stages of growth, the Shaanxi Provincial Health Cadre College in 1959 and Shaanxi Medical Senior College in 1994. In 2006, with the approval of Ministry of Education, it was upgraded to a full-time undergraduate medical institution, named Xi'an Medical University.

The university consists of Hanguang Campus, Weiyang Campus and Gaoxin Campus. It has a student body of 13,624 undergraduate students as well as 669 postgraduate students. It has 6 affiliated hospitals with a total of 6,284 beds, including First Affiliated Hospital, Second Affiliated Hospital, Third Affiliated Hospital,Affiliated Baoji Hospital , Affiliated Hanjiang Hospital and Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital. The First, Second and Provincial People's Hospital are large-scale Grade III-Level A hospitals. Besides, the university has over 30 teaching and practicum hospitals.

By September of 2020, XMU has 867 full-time teachers,185 of whom are professors and 383 associate professors, accounting for 65.51% out of the total;716 with a master or doctoral degree, accounting for 82.58% out of the total.It has 16 schools and departments, including Clinical Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Medical Technology, Stomatology, General Medicine, Public Health, etc.

It offers general undergraduate education and postgraduate education on 21 majors in total. It has the right of degree-conferring in one first-level discipline of master's degree program, which is Clinical Medicine. Also, it is authorized a degree-conferring centre for 21 second-level discipline of bachelor's degree programs. It has 1 national first-class major, 9 provincial first-class majors,6 provincial first class undergraduate courses,3 provincial-level key specialties (specialized majors) and 3 provincial-level Professional Comprehensive Reform Pilot Projects.

The University takes discipline construction as the leader, and set National Natural Science Foundation as the guidance, increases the construction of scientific research platforms. The number of scientific research projects, research funds and research achievements increases by the year. At present, there are 1 national drug clinical trial institution, 7 provincial scientific research platforms, 6 provincial clinical medicine sub centers, 13 university level research institutes (centers), 1 provincial scientific and technological innovation team, 4 university youth innovation teams of in Shaanxi Province, and more than 20 scientific and technological talents at national, provincial and ministerial levels.In recent years, it has been approved 69 national scientific research projects, 360 provincial and ministerial scientific research projects, 5 provincial science and technology awards, 21 transformation of sci-tech achievements with a total of 1.011 million yuan transformation funds.