NOVA Medical School was established by law decree 481/77, issued November 15, 1977. It began its activities in the 1977/1978 academic year.

The school is one of the institutions of NOVA University of Lisbon. Its responsibilities are described in article 2 of the defining statues and policies of the school, published in law 8664/2009 annex, issued March 18, 2009 (Code of the Portuguese Republic, 2nd series, number 60, March 26, 2009):

The school mission is the public service of preparing with excellence professionals in the areas of medical sciences and other health fields.

So that the school can accomplish this mission it pursues the following objectives:

- Internationally competitive research in multidisciplinary areas, including research aimed at solving society health problems;

- Teaching excellence, increasingly focusing in the second (master) and third (doctorate) cycles, offering academic programs competitive nationally and internationally.

- Establishing a widening network of synergetic health field collaborations with other institutions at Universidade Nova de Lisboa and beyond;

- Providing high quality services leading to the effective improvement of health care delivery and its human resources, nationally and internationally, namely on Portuguese-speaking countries.