Its establishment was an initiative of Bernardino Rivadavia, Minister of Government and Foreign Relations for Buenos Aires Province Governor Martín Rodríguez.

The academy coordinates research and is consulted on medical matters by government departments, judges, public health officials, and the media.

Its numerary membership totals 35 physicians elected by a vote of their peers, all reside in Buenos Aires, and each represents a different field in medicine.

[1] Past members have included three Nobel Prize in Medicine laureates: Dr. Bernardo Houssay (1947), Dr. Luis Federico Leloir (1970), and Dr. César Milstein (1984).

The academy's headquarters is a Neoclassical building situated on a corner lot in the upscale Recoleta area of Buenos Aires.