Founded in 1882 in Chicago, the College of Physicians and Surgeons had a beginning class of 100 students and a faculty of 30 physicians. In 1913, the College was incorporated into the University of Illinois. Over the years, the University of Illinois College of Medicine has expanded to meet the needs of its state constituency. The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford, created as a regional medical program for Illinois, admitted its first students in 1972 and graduated its first class in 1975. The College provides the second, third, and fourth years of medical education. Students begin the degree program with an initial year at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The College of Medicine is located on a beautiful 20-acre, wooded site in residential Rockford. The facilities include an auditorium, classrooms, teaching and research laboratories, media services, an activity center, and faculty and administrative offices.

The College of Medicine enjoys a solid relationship with Rockford's local hospitals, including Rockford Memorial Hospital (Rockford Health System), SwedishAmerican Health System / OSF and the St. Anthony Medical Center .

The College of Medicine at Rockford is organized into eight academic departments: Biomedical Sciences, Family and Community Medicine, Medicine, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Pathology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Surgery. Basic and applied research projects span the basic sciences, behavioral/sociological research, epidemiological studies, and clinical medicine. Research is furthered through grants from government agencies, private foundations, and other sources.

College faculty includes a core of full-time physicians and basic scientists, as well as more than 500 hospital and office-based physicians in the region. The faculty represents a full spectrum of specialties and subspecialties. The community-based approach to teaching utilizes the talents of faculty physicians in three local hospitals, psychiatric facilities, and the College's Primary Care Centers.

The Woodruff L. Crawford Branch of the Library of the Health Sciences offers a collection of nearly 50,000 volumes and 400 current journal subscriptions. Several hundred databases are available for computerized literature searching, and resources are shared with more than 30 other institutions via the Library Computer System. The library also houses a microcomputer lab available for use by students, faculty, and staff.

The Rockford campus is home to a number of additional University programs, including the regional University Outreach and Public Service office, the UIC College of Pharmacy program site, and the UIC College of Nursing program site. University of Illinois course offerings in a variety of fields are also conducted in this facility.