St. John’s Medical College and Hospital and School of Nursing were started in 1963, 1975 and 1980 respectively at Bangalore by the C.B.C.I. Society for Medical Education. The School of Nursing was upgraded to the College of Nursing in 1989. In 1994 all the Institutions were brought under the common name : St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences. St. John’s Research Institute was the latest addition to the Academy in the year 2004.
Right from its inception St. John’s set before it an ideal of excellence in academic courses as well as service to society and research as a result of which it has truly become holistic both in its outlook and in its approach to the problems of community health. St. John’s has been consistently ranked as one of the top 10 medical Institutes in the country.