It is managed by the Nitte Education Trust, which runs a number of professional colleges in the state of Karnataka.

[1] The KS Hegde Medical Academy is located at Deralakatte, a town about 13 km from Mangalore.

The college is named after the visionary and founder, late Justice K. S. Hegde, former Justice of the Supreme Court of India and former Speaker of the Lok Sabha and social worker Since 2019 admissions under the General Merit category are being conducted via centralised single window counselling on the basis of merit (rank) obtained in the All India Entrance Test, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), conducted by NTA.

The college has established a state-of-the-art regional research centre on communicable diseases in collaboration with the University of Texas Health Sciences, on the campus.

The Institute also has a staff exchange and training programme with Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, USA.