The medical department of the University of Tennessee had its roots in the 1850s. During this time, two doctors began a medical school in Nashville and associated themselves with the University of Nashville. In the 1870s, Nashville Medical College opened its doors and quickly became affiliated with the University of Tennessee. The College organized a Dental department in 1878 and by 1909 boasted three programs of study.

In 1909, the University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Nashville began considering consolidating their medical units. Vanderbilt was unable to agree to the merger, but the other two institutions combined their programs to become the Medical School of the University of Nashville and the University of Tennessee. Their teaching hospital was the Tennessee Hospital located at 614 Broadway in Nashville. The program operated during the 1909-1910 school year, but the arrangement proved to be difficult. Construction of a planned new teaching hospital was delayed due to funding problems, and Abraham Flexner (director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) declared in 1910 that, with the exception of Vanderbilt, Tennessee medical schools were worthless. The General Assembly rejected funding for the program in 1911, and as a result the new hospital was never built. Already in significant debt, the University of Nashville sold all of its equipment to the University of Tennessee, which moved its program to Memphis to avoid the difficulties attendant upon maintaining a program in Nashville.