In the early ‘70s, the San Raffaele Foundation established a fully independent private hospital that shortly after, was granted the status of IRCCS (Research Hospital) making it a site for clinical research.
The San Raffaele Hospital with its strong dedication to clinical trials (around 140 per year), is now one of the largest and most renowned Italian private hospital with 1068 beds.

In 1992, a basic science institute, namely DIBIT (Department of Biological and Technological Research) was built over a dedicated research space of 12,000 square meters. Nowadays it employees 270 people, including scientists, technicians, and administrative personnel, along with 130 fellows, trainees and graduate students.
Along with the years, the institution’s scientific production has continued experiencing quite an impressive progress for both the number of publications and the overall quality. In 2003, 534 scientific papers were published, with a total impact factor of 2785; in 200 they were 596 with a total impact factor of 2702.
The areas of excellence are in: AIDS and Infectious Diseases, Biomedical Technologies, Cancer Immunotherapy; Diabetes and metabolic diseases, Genetics and Gene Therapy, Inflammation, Neuroscience and Stem Cells Research.

Since 2001, “San Raffaele Scientific Institute” is acknowledged as IRCCS (Scientific Research and Clinical Institute) for Molecular Medicine, by the Italian Health Ministry.

In 1996, University Vita-Salute San Raffaele was founded. It began with the Faculty of Psychology, followed in 1998/1999 by the degree course in Medicine and Surgery and the University Nursing Diploma, and in 2000/2001 by the University Diploma for Physiotherapists. In 2001/2002, in the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, began the degree course in Biotechnology.
The previously mentioned nursing and physiotherapy diplomas have now been converted into three year degree courses in the same faculty, and in 2002 a Faculty of Philosophy has been activated. Moreover, teaching activities comprise a European PhD program in Cellular and Molecular Biology that has been approved as an international doctorate by the MIUR (Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca – Ministry of Education,Universities and Research) and furthermore, in 2001 an International Doctorate in Molecular Medicine.