[5] It is one of the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) established by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna (PMSSY).

In 2003, Central government decided to set up new AIIMS at Rishikesh, Bhopal, Patna, Jodhpur, Bhubaneswar and Raipur[citation needed] Though the announcement was made in 2003 during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure,[citation needed] the project was delayed owing to the power shift at the centre.

AIIMS Bhopal launched its first academic department, community and family medicine (CFM) in September 2012,[6] formed its Institute Body (IB), in July 2013[7] and started post graduation courses in January 2017.

[9] AIIMS Bhopal is the 12th institute in India to be designated as Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Rare Diseases.

have been also established Memorandum of Understanding have been signed with various institutes like IISc Bangalore,IIT Kanpur, IIT Indore, IISER Bhopal, CSIR-AMPRI, NIT Bhopal to facilitate research activities 7 Patents were filed by Faculties of AIIMS Bhopal in year 2023 and about 300 Pubmed Indexed Papers were published by faculties of AIIMS Bhopal in year 2023 alone Undergraduate Research Forum and Journal Club was established in 2023 to promote research among MBBS Students in Basic Sciences and Clinical Subjects AIIMS Bhopal was ranked 31st among medical colleges in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2024[12] and 16th by India Today.