As early as 1983, medical students at the UA College of Medicine were taking required clerkships in internal medicine, pediatrics, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology and family practice, as well as clinical electives, in the Phoenix area. In 1992, a Phoenix program was formally established, allowing third- and fourth-year UA medical students to complete rotations at affiliated hospitals in Phoenix.
In August 2004, the Arizona Board of Regents approved an agreement to create an independently operated medical school now called the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix to a four-year program. An unprecedented statewide collaboration of the Arizona Board of Regents, the three state universities, the City of Phoenix, the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Phoenix-area teaching hospitals, guided by a governor-appointed commission, led to the establishment of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix where the UA medical school resides.
